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Book_ 

coipgiitN'?._ :l 


COFYKIGHT DEPOSIT. 








































































































THINGS IN NATURE 

Interspersed with Illustrations and Poems 


Compiled as Vol. VI 


BOYS AND GIRLS’ FIRESIDE SERIES 


By A. L. BYERS 


GOSPEL TRUMPET COMPANY 

Anderson, Ind. Kansas City, Mo. 









? 


A 


7 



Copyright, 1920, 

by 

GOSPEL TRUMPET COMPANY 



©CU571220 



PREFACE 

The Boys and Girls’ Fireside Series is an 
arrangement, in permanent form, of many ex¬ 
cellent anjd interesting narratives, trips, and 
adventures, little sermons, Bible Stories, 'de¬ 
scriptions of nature, various industries and for¬ 
eign customs, bits of biography and history, 
missionary experiences, little poems, etc., that 
have appeared from time to time in the 
SHINING LIGHT, a periodical for children. 
Comparatively few who are now in the transi¬ 
tory period of childhood have ever read them, 
and it is believed that in this permanent form 
they will he preserved as a treasure-store of use¬ 
ful reading in which hoys and girls will find both 
pleasure and profit. 



CONTENTS 


A Nature Study . 

Some Musical Insects . 

Summer-Night Sounds (Poem) . 

April Beauties and Melodies.. 

Musicians of the Autumn Woods... 

Interesting- Facts Concerning- Eggs. 

The World’s Prize Wanderers. 

Why Things Are Beautiful (Poem). 

The Wisdom of Our Little Dumb Friends. 

Animals in Winter . 

Study of Iceberg-s . 

How Some Animals Make Their Toilet. 

Spring- Beauties (Poem) . 

Protected by Form and Color. 

How Nature Protects .. 

Some Queer Nests . 

Some Interesting- Facts about Water-....,. 

The Brook (Poem) . 

A Thunder-Storm .„. 

A Summer Thunder-Storm . 

Queer Actions of Electricity .. 

Some Benefits of Snow. 

The Beauty and Wonder of Snowflakes. 

Jack Frost . 

Boulders ..*.. 

Autumn Days .... 

How Some Birds Secure Food. 

A Walk in the Woods (Poem). 

A Walk among- the Hills. 

Learning- Animal Language . 

The Solar System . 

The Wonders of the Sun.. 

The Moon . 

Viewing- the Comet . 

What We See at Night. 

A Saturday Afternoon’s Walk in Birdland—,. 

Why the Oriole’s Nest is Hung-. 

Young Birds .. 

The Nest-Builders . 

More about Oui- Nest-Builders. 

Get Acquainted with the Birds. 

A Bird’s Song . 

How Birds and Animals Sleep... 

Make Friends of the Birds. 

Plants that Prey on Fellow Plants.. 

How the Flower Babies Sleep. 

The White-Oak Leaves . 

A Southern Day (Poem)... 

Our Trees and Their Beauty. 

Autumn Dreams (Poem) . 

How Trees Live and Die. 

An Aged Cherry-Tree . 

How Fruits are Formed. 

Formation of a Seed. 

The Ever-Restless but Never-Changing Sea 

Snoqualmie Falls . 

Seeing Beauty in Leafless Trees. 

The Great Stone Face. 

Irish Scenery . 

Wonderful Niagara . 

Among the Rockies . 

Winter'si Charms (Poem) . 

The Beautiful Abalone . 

The Valley Brook (Poem). 

Goldfish . 

Something about Eels . 

October’s Bright Blue Weather (Poem). 

Some Featherless Flyers. 


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THINGS IN NATURE 


A NATURE STUDY 

T HEi WARM SUNNY days of summer are the ^ery best time for 
little beginners in nature studies. 

Now just go out and search into some of the hidden crevices among 
your out-buildings, and you will spy some very busy little laborers. 
Watch them at their work. Perhaps it is only a little mud-wasp. But 
you can learn a good lesson of industry even from the mud-wasp. You 
can also learn a lesson of the goodness of God; for you can see that he 
has given even to the smallest creatures kindly ways about providing 
for the comforts of their little families. 

Note how carefully the wasp applies the soft mud and clay that she 
gathers from the marshy places and brooks. With these she forms the 
little cell-homes for her babies. Each little apartment is very regularly 
and carefully made. It is the mother wasp who attends to all the build¬ 
ing process. 

When one little cell is finished, she deposits just one tiny egg in it 
and crowds it dowtn neatly and securely into one corner of the cell. 

Now just like a good little mother she is going to lay in a store of 
food for her babies ’ future use. She goes out in search over the big 
fields. Look! She is pouncing down upon a fat little spider. This 
will do for a beginning. So she stings and stings it until it just can not 
move or struggle any more. Then she carries it home and packs it 
down tight in the little cell. This is only a beginning. She keeps on 
packing down little spiders until the cell-home is crowded full. Then 
she seals it up tight with soft mud. 

This being finished to her satisfaction, she now begins to build 
another cell. She goes through this same kind of work until a great 
number of cells have been made and well stored with food. 

In a few days the eggs begin to hatch, and the little larvae make 
their appearance. Immediately they begin to feed on the spiders. They 
eat and grow, and the more they grow the more they must eat, for they 
must have more room in the cell for their bodies. 

In a few days the spiders are all eaten up. Then the larvae must 



8 


THINGS IN NATURE 


fast and rest a while. Now they spin silken robes about themselves and 
sleep. In a few days they awaken again. They have a new life and a 
new appearance. They hurst their silken robes and gnaw their way out 
into the outside world. 

The eggs and the worms and the sleeping-cases have all disappeared, 
and the larvae are now perfect mud-wasps. 

Do you think that all these wonderful changes could take place if 
a kind heavenly Father were not watching and controlling them? 

—Sara E. Farman. 


SOME MUSICAL INSECTS 

T NSECTS ARE very different from all other representatives of the 
^ animal kingdom. At first sight we might think they are like birds, 
because many of them have wings and are able to fly; but just a slight 
examination shows that insects and birds are vastly different. 

An insect has no bones, yet it has a skeleton. Its skeleton is on 
the outside of its body and consists of a very strong and sometimes a 
crusty skin that holds the body together and keeps it in shape. Some¬ 
times this skin is so strong that it is difficult to cut, even with a sharp 
knife. 

There are about three hundred thousand known insects, but I wish 
to speak particularly of some of the musical kinds. 

In the grasshopper family there are both the long-horned and short¬ 
horned grasshoppers. The grasshopper known as the most musical is 
called the katydid. A number of grasshoppers go by this name in Amer¬ 
ica, but the general type of this insect is a graceful, green, fragile- 
looking creature with very long, slender horns. These horns are not 
used for blowing purposes, however, but for feeling, the musical appa¬ 
ratus being situated elsewhere. 

According to the general idea, katydids rasp their fore wings 
against each other three times in succession, producing the three syl¬ 
lables ka-ty-did, which gives the insect its name. There is another idea, 
however, that the insect rasps its fore wings only twice, making either 
the sound “katy” or “she-did.” The former idea is the most general. 
These sounds or notes, ‘ 6 ka-ty-did, ’ ’ are' uttered with great emphasis, 
and at the rate of about two hundred in a minute. 



SOME MUSICAL INSECTS 


9 


At certain seasons of the year in the United States it would seem 
these katydids held concerts, for many of them join together to make an 
elaborate musical display. As soon as the sun is set, and twilight 
advances, the katydids in the trees begin to 4 4 tune up. ’ 9 The first notes 
are scattered and without rhythm; hut if no wind is blowing, hundreds 
soon join in, and, from time to time, until the dawn of the new day they 
keep their song ringing. If there should come a gust of wind, the 
orchestra is upset and confusion results; but when all is again quiet, the 
same swing-swang is continued. 

In these katydid concerts it would seem that the musicians are 
divided into companies, each company having its own leader, one com¬ 
pany striking several notes, another company immediately answering 
in remarkably perfect rhythm. 

The cricket, also found in the United States, is another musical 
performer, especially at nights. One writer has said that the shrill sound 
the crickets emit resembles somewhat “re-teat, re-teat, re-teat.” An¬ 
other writer, who has made an exhaustive study of the notes of the black 
field-cricket, says they are pitched at E natural, two octaves above 
middle C. 

One interesting thing about the song of the crickets is that the num¬ 
ber of notes uttered in any given space of time varies according to the 
temperature, the two rising together. If you were to bring a cricket, on 
some cool evening, into a warm room, it would chirp nearly twice as 
rapidly as when out-of-doors. 

Another very musical insect is the cicada. There is something 
very uncouth and yet pleasing and lovable about these insects. They 
have broad, flat heads, and great goggle-eyes; their wings are both long 
and broad, and, when folded, project far beyond the extremity of the 
abdomen, concealing everything except the great head and the wide 
shield of the thorax. Their legs, too, while they retain their ordinary 
resting attitude, are entirely hidden, and so also are the organs of the 
mouth, which combine to make a sharp-pointed beak. The ancient peo¬ 
ple who loved and admired the cicadas thought that they fed entirely 
on dew. This, however, could not have been true, for the cicadas live 
on the sap of the trees on which they sit. 

It is the male cicadas that sing; the musical apparatus is present 
in the female, but much less developed than in the male, and is never 
used for producing sound. 


10 


THINGS IN NATURE 


There are many species of the cicadas, and it would be difficult to 
try to describe their song. There is one species, however, whose song, 
at the beginning, resembles somewhat the winding of a large clock, and 
ends by being comparable to a penny whistle. Another species lias a 
clear, loud, clarion-like call, which can be heard at a great distance. 
Homer terms the shrill song of the cicadas as “delicate music/’ and 
Hesiod tells us that this musical insect begins to sing .to men of the com¬ 
ing summer apd that the whole day long its voice can be heard. 

There was apparently no end to the love of the ancients—especially 
the Greeks—for the cicadas. From poets and philosophers down to 
plowmen, all were equally fond of them. The reason for this seems to 
be that many strange ideas and stories concerning these insects had 
for centuries been held very sacred. Even in modern Italy, generally, 
but especially in Tuscany, the old ideas and legends in regard to the 
cicadas have not yet died out. —Opal F. Brookover . 


SUMMER-NIGHT SOUNDS 

’Tis sweet to sit, 

Ere the lamps are lit, 

By the vine-wreathed casement, listening 
When the winds are still. 

And the cricket’s trill 
Is heard where the dew is glistening: 
“Cheer eet, cheereet.” 

’Tis a summer night. 

With a moon so bright 
That the fire-flies’ lamps are pale, 

And all night long 
Comes a mournful song 
From a lone bird in the vale: 

“Whippoorwill, whippoorwill.” 

In a shady nook 
By the side of the brook, 

Hid away from the prying moon. 

On a moss-grown log, 

Some love-lorn frog 
Is singing this mellow tune: 

“Ker-chug, ker-chug.” 



APRIL BEAUTIES AND MELODIES 


11 


And a little beyond. 

Just over the pond, 

From a tall tree on the bank. 

Comes faint, but clear 
To my listening ear, 

Tile song of a feathered crank: 
“Too-whoo, too-whoo.” 

Then a gossip unseen, 

In the ivy green, 

Repeats to a drowsy bird 
A scandalous tale 
Of some mortal frail. 

And these are the words I heard: 
“Katydid, katydid.” 

And across the way. 

By the bright moon’s ray, 

A youth and maiden are seen. 

And I hear a repeat 
Of the old word sweet. 

As the gate swings to, between: 
“Good-night, good-night.” 

—Louise P. W. Palmiter. 


APRIL BEAUTIES AND MELODIES 

A PRIL IS A month that brings many very wholesome delights to 
the school-children. Nature has arisen from her long winter’s 
hibernating and is throwing off her winter’s covering. A frolic on the 
hillsides, and the school-room is bedecked with the spicy, fragrant clus¬ 
ters of the trailing arbutus—white and rose-colored. 

Down in the marshy fields the tender cowslips have attained their 
full perfection for the dinner-table. Within these thirty days their 
edible quality will give place to that which is more pleasing to the eye 
of the play-loving little hunters over the fields; for now under their 
name, marsh marigold, a bright, golden profusion of flowers are waving 
their tokens of spring over the brooks, and hiding from view the un¬ 
sightly miry meadow-patches. 

The daffodils, liepatica, and crocuses are among the early arrivals 



12 


THINGS IN NATURE 


in the procession of plant-life, which herald the speedy approach of a 
beautiful apparel of leaves and flowers for the young botanists in their 
herbariums. 

The robins and the bluebirds are nesting, and in the old, familiar 
corner of the porch the pewiee and his mate have again taken lodgings 



The singers of the pond 

for the season. His soft, fine, silvery notes fill us with the delightsome 
thrills of many new conditions. 

But the merriest sound of all that greets the ears of the youth¬ 
ful hunters of the wildwood issues forth from the pond just the other 
side of the hill. The sounds are not discordant; for there is a soft, sweet 
harmony in the different voices—soothing, gladsome, and victorious. 
All the Mr. Frogs and all the Mrs. Frogs and the entire colony of Frogs, 
large and small, have come forth to celebrate their own arrival into the 
warm, sunny springtime again. Their vigorous serenade precedes the 











MUSICIANS OF THE AUTUMN WOODS 


13 


robin and the bluebird in announcing the approach of spring. The real, 
alive, springtime boy can distinguish the voice of the bull-frog, the black¬ 
smith-frog, and the sugar-miller, etc., by the difference in the vocal 
sounds emitted. —Sara E. Farman. 


MUSICIANS OF THE AUTUMN WOODS 

A LTHOUGH MOST of the bird musicians are now silent, and the 
insect serenade has tapered off to an occasional weak chirp of a 
chilled cricket, there are still some little musicians left to entertain us 
in the autumn days. And during these still autumn days, while the 
squirrels are busily engaged gathering nuts for the coming winter, and 
the few remaining birds silently search for stray insects and larvae 
among the branches overhead or among the fallen leaves on the ground, 
our little vocalists are piping their chorus. 

From up among the branches comes a shrill peep that reminds us 
of spring and the marsh, only somewhat weaker, as it is repeated at 
intervals, now in one part of the woods and then in another. Yes, it is 
the same little vocalist that we heard in April—Pickering’s tree-frog— 
but he has now taken up his abode among the boughs, where he spends 
his time distending and collapsing his vocal sac or jumping about among 
the brown leaves that so closely resemble his own color. 

Then there is the familiar rattle of the common tree-toad, with 
its sense of mystery as to the exa£t location of the author. Our eyes may 
even rest on him time and again without detecting his whereabouts, so 
well do his color and markings conceal him. 

Another peep resembling that of the tree-toad’s though somewhat 
less clear and positive, proceeds from almost under our feet. This 
time, though, our musician is neither frog nor toad, but a little red 
salamander. We shall often hear his voice as we stroll through the 
woods on a warm autumn day. 

The frost-browned leaves hide still another of our autumn musicians 
—the wood-frog, whose clucking note often accompanies the peep of the 
tree-toads. His color so perfectly harmonizes with the brown of the 
surrounding leaves that, even though we may see him jump, it is a sharp 
eye indeed that can locate him. Even our common hoptoad adds his call 
to the chorus and does his part in the concert. — St. Nicholas. 



14 


THINGS IN NATURE 


INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING EGGS 

T HE MAKING OF collections of egg-sliells for scientific museums 
and for private individuals occupies muck time and incurs great 
expense annually. Rare eggs often command very high prices, the few 
eggs remaining of the extinct great auk being worth more than two 
thousand dollars each. 

But what a wealth of beauty and variety one would behold in a 
complete collection of all kinds of eggs! The most noticeable group 
perhaps would be the many-sized, many-shaped, and many-colored eggs 

of birds. No less beautiful and in¬ 
teresting, however, would be the 
group of insect eggs, with their di¬ 
verse and peculiar shapes, odd ar¬ 
rangements, and artistic colorings. 
The eggs of reptiles, with their glob¬ 
ular or oblong shapes and their 
tough, yellowish-white, parchment- 
like shells form another interesting 
and curious group. Then the eggs 
of the amphibia—frogs, toads, etc. 
—inclosed in gelatinous masses or 
cords, and the various kinds of fish 
eggs, some of which have flat, four- 
cornered shells, are also interesting. 
A study of any one of these groups would furnish material for a 
long story, but we shall restrict this article to some facts concerning the 
eggs of reptiles—such animals as snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and turtles. 

Not all reptiles lay eggs, but most of them do. As a rule they lay 
comparatively few, and relatively large, eggs, depositing them in holes 
and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun or that produced 
by decaying vegetable matter in which the eggs are buried. 

But the eggs of the turtle tribe are numerous, numbering from 25 
in some species to 250 in others. Most aquatic turtles deposit their 
eggs in sand or mud and cover them up so deftly that they are practically 
safe from discovery. Most turtles’ eggs are spherical and possess a 
tough leathery shell, though some are oval, and some have shells of fine 
porcelain-like texture. 






THE WORLD’S PRIZE WANDERERS 


15 


Crocodiles deposit from twenty to sixty eggs in the sand or mnd 
along river-banks and leave them to be hatched by the heat of the snn. 
In many species, if not in all, the mother guards the rude nest and cares 
for the young. The eggs are about the size of those of a goose and have 
a hard shell. In spite of their musky flavor, they are greatly prized as 
an article of food in regions where they are found. 

Many snakes and lizards lay eggs which have parchment-like cov¬ 
erings, though the eggs of some lizards have hard shells. The python 
snakes lay about one hundred eggs, and hatch them within the circle 
of their coiled bodies. 


THE WORLD'S PRIZE WANDERERS 


AST AUGUST a Montana farmer caught a red hawk. Not caring 



■L' to kill the bird, he fastened to its leg a small bottle containing his 
name and address, and turned it loose. Some time in December—the 
exact date is not given—the same hawk was killed nine miles from 
Bogota, the capital of the Soutli-American country from which Mr. 
Roosevelt “took Panama.” Bogota is 3,700 miles, air-line, from the 
Montana field where the hawk was captured. 

A bird making such a journey is a fairly experienced traveler, but 
he has established no new records. The wheatear rears its young in 
Alaska and spends the winter on the west coast of Africa. This is a 
6,000-mile journey by air-line, and considerably more by the round-about 
route which the birds usually take. The gray plover breeds in the far 
north of Europe, Asia, and North America, but when it goes south for 
the winter, it frequently reaches Cape Colony, Ceylon, and Australia. 
Figure the varying distances for yourself. The golden plover travels 
about as far. 

All these migrants, like the hawk in question, travel in stages, with 
occasional stops by the way. But there is a bird, a species of bluethroat, 
which disappears in the fall from northern Scandinavia and is next 
seen in Egypt. This would seem to imply an unbroken journey of 
about 2,800 miles. 

Consider, too, the whale which was killed in the North Atlantic, 
carrying in his anatomy a harpoon wherewith he was jabbed while doz¬ 
ing in the middle of the Pacific years before. The harpoon was marked 



16 


THINGS IN NATURE 


with the name of the ship, whose log showed when and where it was lost. 
Unless that whale found and negotiated the famous Northwest Pas¬ 
sage, he must have come round Cape Horn, or perhaps made the still 
longer journey by the Cape of Good Hope. Compared to the hero of 
such a trip that hawk appears like a 4 4 gay cat, ’ ’ or rather homekeeping 
tramp, after all. —Helena {Mont.) Independent. 


WHY THINGS ARE BEAUTIFUL 

Why have the blossoms 
Such different hues? 

And the waves of the sea 
Such number of blues? 

So many soft greens 
Flit over the trees, 

And little gray shadows 
Fly out on the breeze. 

Why are the insects 
So wondrously fair. 

Illumining grasses 

And painting the air? 

You dear little shells. 

Oh, why do you shine? 

And feathery seaweed 
Grow fragile and fine? 

Why are the meadows 
Such gardens of grace, 

With infinite beauty 
In limited space— 

Each separate grass 
A world of delight? 

O food for the cattle, 

Why are you so bright? 

Why are our faces 
Such lovable things, 

With lips made for kisses 
And laughter that sings. 

With eyes full of love. 

That sparkle and gleam 
Through beautiful colors 
That change like a dream? 



THE WISDOM OF OUR LITTLE DUMB FRIENDS 


17 


Think for a moment— 

Look up to the sky; 
Question your heart: it 
Will answer the “why.” 

Why is this glitter, 

This beauty unfurled? 
Because God is love, 

Who fashioned the world. 

— Selected. 


THE WISDOM OF OUR LITTLE DUMB FRIENDS 

WE KNOW of some of the wonderful things animals do, 
” we are made to wonder if they do not have the power to think. 
In some of our little dumb friends there is something that prompts 
them to prepare for tomorrow, or rather the winter of many tomorrows. 

In lands where the winters are severe, it is necessary for many of 
our animals to lay up a regular food-supply. 

There is probably no bird that has been able to store away enough 
food to last during the entire winter. The majority of the birds of the 
northern climate go south during the winter, but there are a few that 
bravely remain, and their ability to lay by for future use is remarkable. 

The jay-bird is fond of dining on field-mice, but it also eats fruits 
and berries as they come in season. When the acorns ripen it feeds on 
these and also hides away some for future use. 

The woodpecker also stores away food. With its powerful beak 
it makes holes in the trunks of trees, and in each of these openings it 
thrusts an acorn. In hard timesi the woodpecker goes to its larder for 
its food-supply—the supply that it laid up in times of plenty. 

What prompts the dog to hide a bone, in order that when he is 
hungry he may dig it upT From the very beginning of history there 
has been some instinct about the dog that has impelled him to do this. 

The little squirrel in the wilds, stores away nuts for hard times, and 
through severe winters it feeds on the food stored away in times of 
plenty. The squirrel at the zoo, even though its food-supply is abundant 
the entire year, will store away nuts. 

The musk-rat lays up food in its mud house in the marsh. The field- 



18 


THINGS IN NATURE 


rat has been known to have as much as a bushel of corn stored away for 
its use in winter. The hamster, belonging also to the rat family, will 
fill four or five underground barns with corn. All these animals seem 
to have an astonishing imitation of thought. 

We marvel at the ability of our dumb animals to lay by in store 
for future use. But after all, the work of some of our insects is far 
more marvelous. 

Think of the work of a beehive. It would seem the little bee cared 
only for tomorrow. Every worker gathers more honey than it could 
possibly eat in a lifetime. How carefully the honey is packed away in 
the little cells and sealed so that it will keep. The little bee provides 
for itself and for us. How we enjoy the delicious honey as it comes to 
our tables, seldom thinking of the skilful little worker that prepared 
it for us! 

The work of the ant is remarkable also. They mine, make tunnels, 
and build story upon story of apartments, as high for them as sky¬ 
scrapers are for us. They gather food and keep it. 

Solomon said, “The ants are a people not strong, yet they pre¬ 
pare their meat in the summer. ’’ The harvesting ant is known to carry 
grains of wheat and barley into its storehouse. I have watched these 
ants at work. Sometimes it requires as many as a dozen of these tiny 
creatures to carry one grain, but they are very diligent and do not give 
up until they have sufficient grain in their underground granaries. 

The ants have a peculiar way of their own to keep these grains from 
sprouting after they have taken them into the earth. We put grains 
into the earth in order that they may sprout and grow, but nature has 
provided a way for these little insects to preserve grain for food during 
the time when food is scarce. 

We wonder at the ability of these little creatures, and do not under¬ 
stand their ways, but God in his infinite wisdom has given them ability 
to care for themselves. —Opal F. Brookover. 


ANIMALS IN WINTER 

M ANY ANIMALS store up food for winter. Such animals, espe¬ 
cially those that store up grain and nuts, spend a great deal of the 
winter in sleep; hut when hungry they awake to partake of their 



ANIMALS IN WINTER 


19 


food-supply, or go out in search of fresh food if the weather per¬ 
mits. 

Some animals make no such preparations for winter, but grow very 
fat in the late summer and fall, and in early winter seek some secluded 
place and go into a stupor much like sleep. The breathing is lessened 
much more than in ordinary sleep, consequently the heart-heat is very 
slow. They take no food; hence the digestive organs are practically 
inactive. The heat of the body is much diminished. Animals that spend 
all or part of the winter in this way are said to hibernate. This stupid 
condition is not caused by the cold; for many animals go into their win¬ 
ter sleep sometime before winter is on. Neither is it the lack of food; 
for one species of bats begins sometimes to hibernate as early as the 
end of July, when its insect food is still abundant. 

Hunger is probably the chief agent that calls such animals to ac¬ 
tivity. Upon waking from their stupor, the heat of the body very quick¬ 
ly increases to normal. Hibernators lose their weight in winter to the 
extent of thirty to forty per cent. This shows that the vital processes 
are going on all the time. 

The woodchuck, or ground-hog, is one of our most common hiber¬ 
nating animals. The hedgehog of Europe and Asia also provides no 
winter food, and few animals hibernate so completely. The dormouse 
spends the colder part of the winter in a dormant state. Porcupines 
and some bears are among this class of animals. 

A number of animals having a wide range of distribution, hiber¬ 
nate in the northern part of their range, but not in the southernmost 
part. The American prairie-dog and the skunk are examples. 

Some bats hibernate, and they never awake during the time except 
from warmth or excitement; and when aroused they settle back into the 
same old stupor. A hibernating hat was kept under water fifteen min¬ 
utes without fatal effect, while a wakened hat will die after three min¬ 
utes ’ immersion. 

Some animals in the cold northern climates change their color to 
white in the winter. This enables them to escape detection by their 
enemies, and also to steal upon their unsuspecting prey. Among these 
animals are one species of the weasel and the ermine, which are brown 
in summer but turn snowy white in winter. The Arctic fox also turns 
pure white about October and remains so all winter. 


20 


THINGS IN NATURE 


STUDY OF ICEBERGS 

S OME OF THE nations of the earth most interested in ocean traffic 
are making a careful and concerted study of icebergs. It is a dif¬ 
ficult subject, since the great masses of ice move about with considerable 
freedom. Seldom are two winter soundings alike, and several instances 
are recorded of places open in one winter, wholly blocked the next. 

Not infrequently, icebergs are miles in extent, and from 2,000 to 
3,000 feet in thickness. In some regions they rise above the sea to a 
height of from 100 to 150 feet. 

These masses of course can only drift along with some polar cur¬ 
rent, as, for example, the Labrador current, which flows in a generally 
southern direction around the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 

The icebergs may often be recognized at night or in a fog by what 
is known as “the ice-blink,” a natural effulgence of brightness caused 
by the emission of rays of light which may be said to have been ‘ ‘ stored 
up.” At short distances this effulgence appears like a white cloud ex¬ 
tending across the sky. — Selected . 


HOW SOME ANIMALS MAKE THEIR TOILET 


T HE MANNER in which some animals make their toilet is a profit¬ 
able study for boys. 

The cat carries her clothes brush in her mouth, for with her rough 
tongue she cleanses her glossy coat as a boy brushes off his clothes. 
She licks one of her front paws and rubs it over her face, and she is 
ready for her breakfast. 

Foxes, dogs, and Wolves do not use their mouths when they need 
to wash and brush, but scratch themselves vigorously with their hind 
paws, and are as fresh as ever. 

The cow, with her long, rough tongue, combs her coat of hair until 
it is clean and curly. The horse, more than any other animal, depends 
on his owner to keep his coat in proper condition, but often he will roll 
on the green grass or rub himself down against a tree or fence. 

Field-mice comb their hair with their hind legs, and the fur-seal 
in a similar manner spends as much time as a woman in making herself 
look nice. 



SPRING BEAUTIES 


21 


Although the elephant appears to be thick-skinned and callous, he 
takes great care of' his skin. He often gives himself a shower-bath by 
drawing the water into his long trunk and blowing it on the different 
parts of his body. After the bath he sometimes rolls himself in a 
toilet preparation of dust to keep off the flies. 

— W. D. Neale, in Boys and Girls. 


SPRING BEAUTIES 

Violets, sweet violets blue. 

Always to their color true. 

Springing up among the grass. 

Just to cheer you when you pass. 

Merry brooks and tiny rills. 

Chasing, racing, down the hill; 

Lovely scenes all bright and new, 

’Neath a sky of charming blue. 

Daisies deck the hill and plain. 
Buttercups are here again, 

Springing up along the hedge 
Or the merry brooklet’s edge. 

Dainty leaflets now unfold 

From their hoods of green and gold. 

Soon there’ll be a pleasant shade 
Falling o’er the vale and glade. 

Butterflies and humming bees 
Fly about at their hearts’ ease. 

Sipping honey sweet and rare 
From the flowers bright and fair. 

Birdie’s songs again we hear 
Ringing out so loud and clear 
From the forest, dale, and dell; 

“Spring is here,” they seem to tell. 

—Mattie Lee Allen. 



22 


THINGS IN NATURE 


PROTECTED BY FORM AND COLOR 

O NE DAY I entered a schoolroom and sat down to watch the teacher 
give a nature-study lesson. I noticed a table covered, over with 
earth. The earth was not all smoothed out, but there were little lumps 
here and there, also little hollows and mounds. 

The girls and hoys stood looking at this, surprized that the teacher 

had brought in “a lot of dirt.” 
Soon they were asked what they 
saw on the table. Some answered, 
1 i Earth.” and some one called out 
brightly, “I see a toad.” A num¬ 
ber looked more closely and said 
they saw two toads. After close 
observation the* eager eyes found 
five toads. 

Now, how was this that those 
five toads were there all the while, 
yet were not discovered by the chil¬ 
dren for some time? It was be¬ 
cause God had so clothed these lit¬ 
tle creatures that they closely re¬ 
sembled their surroundings in col¬ 
or. This resemblance in color is 
a great safeguard to toads. 

It is not alone these little an¬ 
imals that God has thus protected; 
we could name many more animals. 
And this “protective resemblance” 
is given to the insects also. Perhaps you have been startled by seeing 
what you had thought to be a little twig commence to move in a lifelike 
manner. This is a slender insect from two to six inches long, gray or 
light brown in color, with fine wire-like legs. It is so much like a branch, 
both in shape and in color, that one is much surprized to find that it is a 
living, moving creature. It is aptly named “w&lking-stick” or “walk¬ 
ing-twig. 9 ’ How God, the Author of all, watches over the little things! 

—Eva A. Woods . 



The walking-stick insect 





HOW NATURE PROTECTS 


23 


HOW NATURE PROTECTS 



D ID IT EVER occur to you to wonder why as between animals of 
much the same general form and size—say as between the zebra, 
the horse, and the mule—there should exist such marked differences and 
differences that are perpetuated generation after generation? 

This problem, which puzzled 
the early scientists, has come, with¬ 
in the last few decades, to be well 
understood. The answer is that 
these changes are all part and par¬ 
cel of nature’s great scheme for 
the protection of her children, the 
promotion of their comfort, and, in 
the case of the wild creatures, for 
enabling them to avoid their en¬ 
emies and to gain a livelihood. 

For example: Every year on 
the coasts of Labrador and New¬ 
foundland thousands of near-seal 
are slaughtered for their hide, 
which is a substitute for shoe- 
leather. The baby seal, or 11 pups, ’ 9 
as they are called, are snow-white 
with a mottling that is grayish. 
Were these baby seals the dull 
brown or black of the adults and 
cavorting here and there on the ice¬ 
fields, don’t you see, they would 
stand out in relief. Bears and 
other foes would see them, make 
for them, and devour them. But 


Striped like shadows of the desert 


against the white ice the white seal pup is almost invisible even at a 
very close distance. 

By and by, though, the ice on which these babies are born has 
broken loose and, caught in the currents, is drifting southward. It meets 
the Gulf Stream and melts. The baby seal must then put to sea. If, 
there, it were a snowy white object such as it was before, its foes would 







24 


THINGS IN NATUBE 


spy it at once and devour it forthwith. But by the time the ice has 
come so far south as the Gulf Stream, the baby’s coat has turned to 
brown, and he’s safe. 

How does this happen? Here is the probable explanation. Once 
on a time, in a herd of seal, some few were a bit lighter colored than 
others. Now in the course of time, the seals fell afoul of their foes. The 
bear, let us suppose, saw the darker-skinned babies and destroyed them, 
but the lighter had the more chance to escape. So the lighter only, were 
left to interbreed, and this seeming 44 fault” of a white skin at birth 
became accentuated, perpetuated. 

The American buffalo is a notable specimen. See how that great 
broad forehead is built to withstand the gale that sweeps the prairies. 
See the shaggy growth just over the eyes, to protect, as he lowers the 
head, from the sand and dust that drives over the plain. Verily Mother 
Nature equipped this child to withstand anything save the man-made 
bullet. 

Look at the zebra, and in the mottled coat see the shadowls cast by 
palm-fronds on the sands of his native desert. Set in the edge of the 
palms the baby and mother are hard to tell from the wavering back¬ 
ground of shrubbery. And so nature protects. 

Throughout the animal kingdom these adaptations stare one in the 
face, so to speak. The wonderful coat of the deer, white in winter, 
making him almost invisible against the snow; the horns, in form and 
color like the branches of trees—what better cloak could conceal him 
from unfriendly eyes f 

Descend to humbler forms, and on our trees you will find, if you 
look sharp, the walking-stick, a wee bit of an insect that, for all the world, 
resembles a few twigs thrown together. On the bark, too, there may 
rest a butterfly or a night-moth, with wings so nearly the color of the 
wood that only when it proceeds to stir does one recognize it as a thing 
apart. 

In his 4 4 Childhood of Animals ’ ’ P. Chalmers Mitchell says: 4 4 There 
is no quality more generally useful to an animal than that of being 
inconspicuous. The living world is a very serious game of hide-and- 
seek, in which nearly every adult animal and those young ones that are 
not hidden or protected by their parent must join. The penalties are 
severe; those that are caught are eaten, and those that fail to catch 
starve. Animals may hunt their prey by scent, but there nearly alwlays 


SOME QUEER NESTS 


25 


comes a critical final moment, when they must be able to see the object 
on which they are to pounce. Animals may escape by swiftness, but 
it is extremely useful if they are so invisible that their enemy can not 
easily follow them by sight, and still more useful if when they are hard 
pressed, or when they have reached a favorable spot, they can suddenly 
fade into the background and become invisible/’ 

Throughout the world this adaptation has led to like seeking like. 
It’s a wonderful system and one full of interest. Keep an eye out for 
it in the next wild things you see or seek. You will learn lessons you 
could never get otherwise, be assured. —Our Dumb Animals. 


SOME QUEER NESTS 

C ROWS AND blue jays are supposed to be the most mischievous of 
all creatures, their fondness for stealing and hiding objects being 
well known. There is an animal, however, living along the Pacific 
Coast which is far more noted as a thief among the miners ’ and hunters ’ 
camps than either the crow or blue jay could possibly be. This is the 
bush-rat, which makes a nest of enormous size—often this nest is a 
dozen feet in length and half as wide—which is dome-shaped and con¬ 
structed of anything that the rats can lay hold Qf. 

The rat’s idea seems to be to build a home that is impregnable and 
indestructible, and while the inside of the nest is made very comfortable 
with leaves, bark, grass, etc., the exterior is usually a sight to behold. 
Nails, tinware, broken crockery, knives, forks, spoons, small tools, and 
even small bags of gold dust have disappeared from cabin or camp to 
be found later in some rat’s nest. 

These rodents get their name from the place in which they usually 
build their nests. Low branches of trees or large bushes are selected; 
hence the little pests are known as ‘ 4 bush-rats.” 

Often these bush-rats choose an abandoned house or building and 
make their nest in one of the rooms sometimes half filling it. Such a 
nest, indeed, makes a formidable appearance, and foolhardy is the owner 
who attempts to oust his unwelcome tenants single-handed. 

A few years ago a mill-owner told of an experience which he had 
with a colony of bush-rats that had taken possession of one of his mills 



26 


THINGS IN NATURE 


that had not been used for about three years. In the nest he found what 
amounted to fully a dozen kegs of spikes arranged with their points 
sticking out, with valve-packing interwoven, soup-bones, pieces of old 
band-saws, a plug of tobacco, a couple of frying-pans, a large carving- 
knife, fork, and steel, and innumerable small articles, including a silver 
watch and small purse of money. 

All these articles he noted while he stood gazing in astonishment. 
Then he started in to tear the nests to pieces, but a regular army of 
rodents swlarmed out to defend their home. Had it not been for the fact 
that the passage to the door was clear, it is doubtful if he would have 
escaped. As it was, he was badly bitten about the legs and ankles. It 
is, perhaps, needless to say that he gathered about him a sufficient force 
of able men before he returned to the attack which would clear his mill. 

—Classmate. 


SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WATER 

H AVE YOU EVER placed a tub of water in a room among the 
flowers on a cold night to keep them from freezing? Perhaps our 
grandmothers would have told us that the water drew the frost away 
from the plants, but scientists tell us that the water actually warms 
the plants. 

Water is indeed a very wonderful substance. It shows such a 
variety of moods under similar conditions that it has been called the 
will-o’-the-wisp of physics. It can be both contracted and expanded by 
raising its temperature, and the same results can be obtained by lower¬ 
ing its temperature. It absorbs heat under certain conditions and re¬ 
leases it under certain other conditions. 

In order to understand how water really warms the plants, we must 
know how water behaves at various temperatures. This is an interesting 
subject, though not altogether easy for young minds to understand; 
however, there are many facts about it that are not hard to grasp. 

The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound 
of water one degree is called a heat-unit. It requires a little more than 
one half of a heat-unit to raise the temperature of one pound of ice 
one degree. 

Suppose we have a pound of ice, or water in solid state, at an ex- 



SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WATER 


27 


tremely low temperature, say a few hundred degrees below zero. We 
wish to boil this water, so we apply heat to it. Every heat-unit applied 
raises the temperature almost two degrees, and finally it reaches the 
melting-point. We are unable to detect a change in the condition of the 
ice before this point is reached, but now the changes become visible. 

We know that water expands when freezing occurs, and now we 
see that a shrinkage takes place. But this is not the most remarkable 
thing that happens. The temperature seems to have come to a stand¬ 
still, and not until 142 more heat-units have been applied does it show 
any difference whatever. This heat disappears in the water; it is used 
up in changing the water from the solid state to the liquid state. But 
it is not lost; it is released when the water is changed again into solid 
form. This is why a tub of water among flowers in a room keeps them 
from freezing. The latent heat given off by the water as it freezes 
warms the atmosphere of the room. 

But after this amount of heat has been applied, the temperature 
begins to rise at the rate of one degree for every additional heat-unit 
applied until 212 degrees Fahrenheit is reached, when the water begins 
to boil and the temperature again becomes stationary. While it is true 
that the boiling-point may be fixed at different temperatures by varying 
circumstances, yet when once the boiling-point is reached, the water can 
be made no hotter. 

The boiling-point is fixed by the pressure on the liquid. Under the 
ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, Water boils at a temperature of 
212 degrees Fahrenheit; decrease that pressure, and the liquid will boil 
at a lower temperature. Perhaps you have wondered why it is impos¬ 
sible on the top of a high mountain to boil an egg untilit becomes hard. 
The reason is this: because of the light pressure of the atmosphere, 
the water boils at a temperature too low to coagulate the albumen of the 
egg. On the summit of the highest mountain in the Alps, water will 
boil at 185 degrees Fahrenheit. By the use of an air-pump it is pos¬ 
sible to decrease the air-pressure until water may actually be made to 
boil near the freezing-point. 

On the other hand,.by increasing the pressure the boiling-point is 
raised. Under a pressure ten times greater than the common atmo¬ 
spheric pressure, the boiling-point is raised to 326 degrees Fahrenheit. 


28 


THINGS IN NATURE 


THE 

Little rambling, sunny stream, 

Round thee plays the bright sunbeam. 
Racing, chasing—never mind; 

Doubt and fear you’ll leave behind. 
With thy dimpled smile draw near, 
Into crease and crevice peer, 

Into secret crannies look. 

Laughing, babbling little brook. 

Catching raindrops as they fall, 
Pressing through the garden wall, 
Flowing, going ev’rywhere— 

Busy here and busy there; 

Bounding, springing, full of glee, 
Ever trending toward the sea, 

Bold to enter every nook, 

Gurgling, rippling, bubbling brook. 

Never resting by the way, 

Time thy current can not stay; 
Winding like a silver thread 
O’er thy mossy gravel bed; 

Oft thou’st given birdlings drink 
As they rested on thy brink 
And their dainty pinions shook 
O’er thy pillow, charming brook. 

Murm’ring, singing soft and low, 
Gently gliding, on you go; 

When all Nature sinks to sleep, 

With the stars you vigil keep; 

Gone from view the light of day, 

For the sunbeams fled away 
And thy quiet haunts forsook; 

Yet you toil on, patient brook! 

Dashing down the mountain’s side, 
’Neath his rugged brow you hide. 
While life’s purpose you fulfil. 
Cunning, sparkling little rill. 

Where thy wand’ring course was bent 
And thy shining virtues went, 

Nature of thy joys partook, 

Pleasant, happy, cheerful brook. 


BROOK 



The brook 

Those who would life’s pleasures find. 
And, like thee, have peace of mind, 
Would they all thy secrets know. 

To thy waters let them go 

And within their crystal smile—• 

Glad the moments to beguile— 

Read, as in an open book, 

Thy sweet story, joyous brook! 

Ever faithful little friend, 

Wouldst thy spirit to me lend? 








A THUNDER-STORM 


29 


Though Time’s shades may round me fall 
And enfold me like a pall. 

May my life be one sweet strain 


Floating to the eternal main. 
As I pensive stand and look 


In thy depths, O smiling brook! 


—Anna K. Thomas. 


A THUNDER-STORM 


ARIOUS INDEED' are the ways different people look upon thun- 



* der-storms. Some consider them nothing more than violent dis¬ 
turbances of the atmosphere; others, horrible and fearful visitations. 

I have seen people rush into a room, close the blinds and doors, and 
sit in an agony of fear until the storm was over. 

To me a thunder-storm is always magnificent, and the more fierce 
and terrific it is, the more I like it. During one I can not work, read, 
or do anything except sit and gaze in awe and admiration at the raging 
elements. 

I recall one of a few years ago that occurred in the afternoon of a 
perfect summer day in the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia. 

We were so interested in discussing our favorite subject that we 
did not notice a storm gathering, until the horizon had become very 
dark and the thunder was heard rumbling. Huge drops of rain began 
to fall, and the lightning began to flash across the sky. It grew rapidly 
in fierceness, until there was one continuous roar broken with sharp 
peals of thunder. Bright streaks of lightning darted in all directions, 
often down to the earth, especially on the highest peaks of the moun¬ 
tain. On one point stood a giant oak, with wide spreading boughs—a 
magnificent tree, all alone with the exception of some small underbrush. 
We called it Lonesome Oak. Just as I said to my companion, “See 
how beautiful Lonesome Oak looks, when the lightning flashes again,” 
there was a flash, a terrific peal of thunder, and the grand old oak lay in 
a thousand fragments on the ground. 

We sat with clasped hands by the open window, gazing with awe 
and admiration at the wonderful storm. Its magnificence attracted 
while its power awed. 

The mountains, with their verdant forests of evergreen and decid¬ 
uous trees, never looked so beautiful as when revealed by the flashes 



30 


THINGS IN NATURE 


of lightning. But alas for the stately old trees! Seven of the most per¬ 
fect specimens we could see from our window wer6 struck by lightning 
'and brought to earth in fragments. —Anito Ashford . 


A SUMMER THUNDER-STORM 

O H, THE beauty and grandeur displayed in the heavy summer- 
storm, and what an inspiration such a scene is to the soul in touch 
with God! Such has been the trend of my thoughts as I have beheld, 
from time to time, the drenching rain and the clashing of the elements 
in the summer-storms about my Ohio home. 

The first indications that attract our attention to an approaching 
storm is the murky blackness of the clouds gathering in the distance, 
accompanied by low mutterings of thunder and occasional flashes of 
lightning. All the sunshine has gone and darkness seems to be settling 
down over everything. 

Soon the clouds extend across the sky in all directions, as if eager 
to hide every particle of the blue sky from our view. Now the rain be¬ 
gins to fall gently, but soon it pours down in such torrents that every 
little rill and brooklet, bursting forth from its narrow bed, leaps wildly 
down the hill and rushes madly through the valley to meet the larger 
streams that foam and roar on their way to the rivers. The thunder’s 
voice grows bolder, the lightning flashes faster, brighter, until the valley 
seems filled with the tumultuous roar and rumble of the thunder’s 
mighty voice, and all the elements of nature seem struggling in one gi¬ 
gantic warfare. 

We sit enraptured, thrilled by the scene before us. What marvel¬ 
ous displays of electricity! What torrents of water that seem to have 
leaped into existence! The rain drives in perpendicular, winding sheets 
down the valley, and all the beautiful flowers and vegetation bow their 
lowly heads in humble submission to the scourging that is to lift them 
higher and cause them to grow stronger and more beautiful. 

How the heart filled with God delights in such wonderful scenes of 
nature, and what a sweet sense of refuge and adoration steals over the 
soul as we meditate on the mighty power and wisdom of God! ‘ 4 The 
course of nature is the art of God,” and all his handiwork magnifies 
his holy name. —Pina Winters. 



QUEER ACTIONS OF ELECTRICITY 


31 


QUEER ACTIONS OF ELECTRICITY 


H EREWITH we print a picture of a flash of lightning. The picture 
is reproduced from a photograph. 

Since we look upon lightning as such a common thing, we hardly 
realize there is so much beauty in it, and oftentimes we imagine the 
light will hurt us. 

We use the word “lightning” to mean two distinct things: first, 
the light that is seen when electricity passes from the clouds to the 



A photograph of lightning 


earth, and second, the electricity, or power, causing that light. The 
light itself is very beautiful as we see it dancing and flickering in the 
clouds after night; especially after the storm has passed over, the sight 
is grand to behold. 

The electricity itself is very different. If it strikes the earth or 
a tree or other object near you, it may only frighten you; hut if it 
passes through your body to the earth, then it may kill you. It does 






32 


THINGS IN NATURE 


this very suddenly, by causing a severe shock to the brain and nerves, 
thereby stopping the heart. 

It was Benjamin Franklin who first discovered that the electricity 
in lightning is the same as electricity on the earth’s surface. No doubt 
you know something about how he did this, but we will notice some 
particular parts of his experiment. 

He made a kite of silk, and on the top of it he fixed a thin wire. 
He tied a string to the kite, but near his hand he attached a silk ribbon 
to the string, and where the ribbon and the string joined he fixed a 
metal key. Then one day when a thunder-storm broke over his home, 
he sent up his kite into the cloud and waited in the doorway with his 
son to watch the result. 

At that time it was not believed that lightning was the same as 
electricity used in batteries over wire; but through his kite experiment 
he proved that it was the same, because he was able to charge his bat¬ 
tery With electricity from the key. No sooner had he made sure of 
these facts than he went to work and made lightning-rods for his house. 
If lightning could be brought from the clouds, as his kite had shown 
it could, then surely, he thought, it would be possible to guide into the 
ground^ the lightning which, if left to strike freely, might destroy the 
house. 

Little did Franklin know what a power was in electricity, and not 
till recent years has it been put to use. Now it runs cars, trains, and 
all kinds of machinery, lights cities, furnishes heat, sends messages 
over land and sea by telephone and telegraph, and flashes messages 
through space by wireless instruments. Thus, it has become one of the 
greatest factors in the development of business and commerce. 


SOME BENEFITS OF SNOW 


E HAVE all read and talked about the beauty of snow—of the 



* * dainty form of its flakes, and its power to transform a bleak and 
barren winter landscape into a wonderland of exquisite loveliness. But 
snow has many practical uses as well, which are not so often noticed. 

When winter comes in the temperate and very cold climates and 
frost cuts off all tender vegetation, then the snow falls as a soft blanket, 



THE BEAUTY AND WONDER OF SNOWFLAKES 


33 


covering the roots of tender plants and grasses. It also protects the 
food-plants, such as rye, wheat, etc. Without this wise provision of 
nature, it is doubtful if much plant-life would survive the rigors of the 
frost. 

A heavy fall of snow in the mountains of the West, where so many 
rivers rise, brings assurance of plenty of water to fill the mighty reser¬ 
voirs that supply the irrigation-systems. It also furnishes much water 
to the rivers, which cool and moderate somewhat the climate of the 
plains. As the sun’s rays strike our part of the earth more directly in 
the spring, it melts the ice and snow, moistening the soil, and helping 
to prepare it for cultivation. 

The melting snow is more beneficial than the same amount of rain; 
for the erosion, or wasting, of the soil is not so great, unless the forests 
have been cut away. If such is the case, there will probably be floods 
at these times. 

The wisdom of God, who “giveth snow like wool,” is infinite. We 
can catch only glimpses, as it were ? of his plans for the good of man¬ 
kind. —An Observer . 


THE BEAUTY AND WONDER OF SNOWFLAKES 

H AVE YOU ever stopped for just an instant to admire a feathery 
snowflake as it fell gently down upon the back of your gloved 
hand? Did you not gaze wonderingly at the beautiful six-pointed ob¬ 
ject, with its picturesquely interwoven center? More than one thou¬ 
sand different forms of snowflakes have been noted, and every variety 
is said to be fashioned upon either the six-sided or the six-pointed plan. 

Wouldn’t you just enjoy mounting a winged horse and exploring 
around in that great laboratory where the building-up process is going 
on? You would probably have to take a thousand trips, you know, in 
order to see all those beautiful forms just as they come from the hand 
of the Great Architect; for one snow-storm produces only one form of 
snowflake. But variations in form take place because of winds which 
frequently knock off some of the points and othewise disarrange their 
shape. 

But now the building up of a snowflake is as simple and pretty a 
story as was ever told in the nursery. The real beginning of the flake 



34 


THING’S IN NATURE 


is merely one or more particles from the air for a center-piece. This 
center-piece becomes surrounded by minute particles of moisture in 
the air, which resemble a cluster of very brightly polished mirrors; so 
intense is the reflection of light from these small mirrors that no hidden 
impurities can by any possibility be seen. But when the flakes become 
so broken down that these mirrors are destroyed, naught remains but 
a drop of dirty water. 

But the flake is not yet finished; it remains for the invisible mois-. 
ture in the atmosphere to give the finishing-up process. This moisture 
always pervades the air. It’consists of minute particles of water—so 
tiny that they can, not be seen at all by the naked eye. When the tem¬ 
perature of the air drops down below freezing, it is then so cold that 
these fine particles of water can not flow together into drops and freeze 
as hailstones. They all freeze separately, and soon the great laboratory 
becomes loaded down with minute spicules of ice. It is the excess of 
these ice particles which finish up the snowflakes in definite, beautiful, 
star-shaped spangles. 

Now* isn’t it wonderfully strange how snowflakes arrange them¬ 
selves in a definite form at each storm and in such exquisite order and 
beauty? Why do they not come tumbling out of the work-shop in any 
kind of shape? Simply because God does not work that way in nature. 
The snowflake shows just as much of God’s care and consideration in 
the usefulness and beauty of its construction as the cheery-blossom or 
the primrose. 

Have you ever handled two bars of steel that had been rubbed 
across a magnet until they were both magnets ? If so, when you put two 
ends together, you saw them repel each other and refuse to stick to¬ 
gether; but by turning one bar around and trying the other end, you 
found that they came together and clung all right? 

All metals and substances which melt crystallize, and' each crystal¬ 
lizes into its own particular form by aid of similar drawing and repel¬ 
ling power. So also all these minute particles of ice, when they seek to 
arrange themselves in their own especial order about those beautiful 
center-pieces, are guided by this wonderful power. Each small spicule 
of ice has one end that repels, or does not adhere, while the other end 
clings like the magnet of steel, and thus they form the beautiful and 
symmetrical shapes which belong to the snowflake only. 

But we have said that the snowflake is useful as well as beautiful. 


JACK FROST 


35 


All the works of God are performed for the benefit of his creatures. 
Now, we know that each of those minute particles of water that freeze 
must have a few small dust-particles from the air for a nucleus, or 
center-piece. So, can you not see what a wise provision the snowflake 
is for helping to clear the air of impurities and make it healthful for 
man;? Some day we shall know a great deal more about God’s loving 
kindness toward all his living creatures than we now know, and we shall 
love to think about it. —Sarah E.'Farman. 


JACK FROST 

H AVE YOU had a visit from Jack Frost? This is the season when 
he calls to see us, but he always comes while we are asleep. When 
we awake in the morning and see that the window-panes are decorated 
with beautiful pictures, we know that Jack has paid us a visit. Some¬ 
times there are trees painted on the glass, and sometimes delicate ferns 
and flowers. These beautiful pictures are made by the moist air in the 
room striking the cold glass of the windows, causing feathery forms to 
freeze on the panes. 

When the leaves have all fallen from the trees, leaving only bare, 
unsightly trunks and boughs, and the flowers have disappeared, leaving- 
only dry ugly stalks, Jack Frost kindly undertakes to make our gardens 
and trees attractive again. In a single night he makes them as beautiful 
as they were in the summer. But he does not confine his beautifying to 
our trees and flower-plants; he decorates the stones and the posts 
along the roadside with a coat of sparkling white. Bushes, grass, and 
even weeds become beautiful when touched by the magic finger of Jack 
Frost. 

These tiny sparkling crystals are really frozen dew. When the 
temperature of the ground and the air is below 32 degrees, the dew is 
frozen into frost-crystals. 

Mount Washington is said to have the most remarkable formation 
of frost. Conditions there are so favorable to frost that crystals some¬ 
times a foot in length are attached to every object. 

While Jack Frost makes our gardens and trees beautiful to be¬ 
hold, he sometimes does much damage to our water-pipes. He freezes 
the water in the pipes, and as the ice occupies more space than the 



36 


THINGS IN NATURE 


water, it bursts the pipes. When a thaw comes, the water runs out. 
Some people think that the th^w bursts the pipes. But this is not the 
case: the thaw simply causes the water to leak out of the pipes that 
have already been burst by the ice. 

If we are not prepared to receive Jack Frost when he comes, he 
freezes our fruit and vegetables that have not matured. When we are 
expecting him, we should cover our plants and vegetables with a thin 
covering of cloth, straw, or the like. In low, flat regions, fruit may be 
saved by burning leaves and. brush-wood, producing a dense smoke. 
The smoke acts as a screen, and so wards off the deposit of frost. 

Although Jack Frost sometimes does harm, he also does a great 
deal toward sweetening the soil and putting it in good condition for 
summer planting. Ground that is to be used for flowers or for a garden 
should be spaded up, so that the frost may penetrate it and do the ut¬ 
most good. 

Jack Frost always vanishes when his enemy, Thaw, appears. For 
this reason those living in climates where it is warm all the year know 
nothing of Jack’s workings. But we who know look forward to his 
coming; for besides all the other good things he does, he causes the nuts 
to drop, which we all like to gather. 


BOULDERS 

B OULDERS are hard, smooth rocks, of rounded form, many of which 
are seen scattered here and there over the northern portion of the 
United States. They vary in size, some being small and others large 
enough to weigh hundreds of tons. The larger ones, which are too 
heavy to be moved easily, are often seen partly embedded in the- soil. 
Some are found completely buried, sometimes to a depth of many feet, 
under the surface of the ground. 

Whence came these boulders? If they could speak to us, they 
would have an interesting story to tell. But though they do not speak 
audibly, they silently tell their story when we consider them in connec¬ 
tion with the general study of the earth’s structure and history. 

In the first place, we are convinced that they are strangers; for 
their structure reveals them to be generally different from the rocks 



BOULDERS 


37 


that ai g native to the localities in which, they are found. The parent 
rocks of which they are fragments are found in regions far to the north. 
Theii rounded corners and the lines sometimes cut in their surfaces 
show that they must have had rough treatment during their long jour¬ 
ney from their original home. By what powerful agency were these 
boulders transported to their present resting-places? You may won¬ 
der, when told that the vehicle which carried them was ice. 

To illustrate how ice may, and does, transport stones, suppose a 
river or creek were to freeze solid to the bottom. The stones which lie 



A large boulder in northwestern Illinois 


in the bed of the stream or along its edges would then become enveloped 
in ice. Should the ice begin to melt and rise (the ice being lighter than 
water) the stones would naturally be lifted with it and be carried some 
distance down-stream. 

At one time in our earth’s history the climate of our latitude was 
much colder than it is today. Of this fact there are indisputable evi¬ 
dences. For instance, remains of the reindeer, musk-ox, and other 
Arctic animals have been found far to the south of their present habitat 
and then we have marks of the glaciers, which, to the student of nature, 






38 


THINGS IN NATURE 


may be read as plainly as a printed book. The crust of the earth is just 
as truly God’s wonderful book in which the student may learn as is the 
Bible. The two books do not conflict, but perfectly harmonize when 
rightly understood. 

The book of nature reveals that at one time, in the long, long ago*, 
a great ice-sheet extended over the country from the Arctic region al¬ 
most as far south as the Ohio River. In obedience to some unknown 
force this vast ice-sheet, or glacier, moved slowly southward, melting, 
of course, as it advanced into a warmer temperature, and melting com¬ 
pletely away at its southern edge. It was this mighty moving glacier 
that scooped out many of our lake basins, rounded our hills, and gave 
us various composition of soil. In many places in the north the gravel 
found in the soil is simply glacial drift brought by the great ice-sheet. 
It was this agency that moved the rocks, dropping them here and there, 
tumbling them, grinding them smooth, sometimes scratching their sides, 
or using them to scratch other rocks and to plow furrows in the earth, 
etc. 

All tliis occurred during the Glacial Epoch, which, geologists tell 
us, was long before man was placed upon the earth. Sometimes in the 
fields we see boulders which, because of their weight and large size, 
men have chosen to leave undisturbed. Have you ever looked at one 
of these objects and thought of the ages during which it has lain there! 
We look at the giant redwood trees of California, some of them said to 
be thousands of years old, and reflect that perhaps from the time of 
Abraham and during all the history that followed—the times of Moses 
and the children of Israel, the times of the Judges and of David, Salo¬ 
mon and Christ—during all this time these noble trees have lived and 
grown. But all these Scriptural events were but as yesterday in com¬ 
parison with that far-distant time when, according to geology, these 
boulders found their resting-places where we now see them. 

In the beds of what were once large watercourses we sometimes see 
these boulders strewn more thickly than in the adjoining country. In 
this case the boulders were carried by icebergs which, floating down 
from the north, naturally followed the watercourses and dropped their 
rocky cargo as they gradually melted. This was probably at a time 
when the climate of the country was not quite so cold, and may have 
been about the close of the glacial period. 

The boulder you see in the picture lies in what was the former bed 


AUTUMN DAYS 


39 


of the Mississippi River in northwestern Illinois, about one mile from 
the present bed of the river and about four miles from where the writer 
spent his childhood days. This boulder is one of the largest in the United 
States. Prom a distance it closely resembles a haystack. Lying in what 
is now a boggy meadow, where wild grass abounds, it may be easily 
mistaken for a stack of wild hay. It is rumored that at one time a man 
jokingly sold it to another man for hay, and that the poor unsuspecting 
purchaser started after it with his wagon and hay-rack, only to find 
that his hay was a solid stone. 

—A. L. Byers . 


AUTUMN DAYS 

I AM SITTING on the gravelly and gently sloping hank of Milk 
River in northern Montana. It is October 3, and one of the loveliest 
days sweet autumn ever gave us. Oh, that I had language to describe the 
beauty of the scene that surrounds me! I doubt if the tongues of angels 
could do justice to the grandeur of the hour. The magnificence of Na¬ 
ture’s exhibition has cast a mystical spell over me. It almost seems that 
I am dreaming in some enchanted vale of fairyland. I have heard of 
the Garden of the Gods, but this is the Garden of God. 

No orchestra ever pealed forth such music as that which I hear 
coming out of the silence. It is the symphonies of the celestial spheres, 
whispering through the voice of Nature. 

The rays of the afternoon’s sun, bending low, are kissing into 
sparkling brightness the laughing waters as they ripple over the river’s 
pebbled bed. The wild rosebud and ripened forest leaves have broken 
their "alabaster box of ointment” and are pouring its fragrance on 
the air. The vines among the branches form a network of such reg¬ 
ularity as scarcely could be excelled by human hands. The leaves of 
the trees are dark green, pale green, purple, orange, yellow, silver, 
brown, and red. Never has an artist painted such a picture. As I write, 
a few of the golden leaves come fluttering down at my feet, bringing 
over me a melancholy feeling. I love such a feeling when kept within 
certain bounds. It links me to eternal things. 

Now a little soloist has come upon the stage and freights the dale 
with his melody. Overhead is a long line of migrating fowl on their way 



40 


THINGS IN NATURE 


to southern seas. I Watch them floating on until they become a dim speck 
against the southwestern sky. Then the lines of the poet come into 
my mind: 

“Thou art gone; the abyss of heaven 
Hath swallowed up thy form, but on 
my heart 

Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou h'ast 
given. 

And shall not soon depart. 

He who, from zone to zone. 

Guides through the boundless sky 
thy certain flight. 

In the long way that I must tread alone 
Will lead my steps aright.” 

—G. E. Orr. 


HOW SOME BIRDS SECURE FOOD 

N ATURE HAS given every kind of bird some means of providing 
itself with a living. They have different ways and means of doing 
this. There are birds that hunt for food alone, birds that organize and 
hunt in companies, birds that go down in the water for their food, birds 
that hover about the dooryard, and birds that steal food from other 
birds. 

The most powerful birds do not display the greatest art in getting 
a living. With the bird of prey it is a powerful beak and talons that 
count; with the clumsy pelican, it is cleverness. The hawk is a lovely, 
though forbidding bird, and is the perfection of grace and power in the 
air; yet force and speed are the hawk’s only means of obtaining a live¬ 
lihood. The hawk will dart through the air, seize his prey with his 
powerful talons, then quickly rise again in the air until he has reached 
a suitable place, where, with its terrible beak, it tears the flesh from its 
victim and enjoys a full meal. 

The eagle has greater power than the hawk and seems to combine 
knowledge with his power. Eagles usually go alone in search for food, 
though sometimes they go together. They have a peculiar way of mak¬ 
ing their arrangements before they set out for food. One eagle flies 
fairly high, the other flies low, beating the bushes, shrubs, and under- 



HOW SOME BIRDS SECURE ROOD 


41 


growth with its wings as it goes along, so that it may frighten rabbits, 
birds, or other small game. When the frightened prey darts from its 
hiding-place, the unseen eagle quickly seizes it and flies away, the other 
following, to a place where the two partake of their feast. If these two 
eagles did not have some kind of bird-understanding that they were 
working together, there would likely be an eagle-battle over the booty. 
Even though birds are seen eating together, those of almost every species 
will, at times, fight over a particular piece of food, even though there is 
twice as much as one can eat. 

The pelican, though a clumsy bird, can both fly and swim; but its 
flying is not the quick, graceful kind, like that of the hawk and eagle. 
It is a water-bird and lives mostly on fish. Pelicans usually live and 
search for food in companies. Perhaps this is the reason why pelicans 
are so numerous. It is a known fact that birds of the more solitary habits 
are fewer in number. Qn seeing a shoal of fish, the pelicans arrange 
themselves in a half-circle, then swim forward, keeping the fish ahead 
of them, until they come to shallow, confined waters, where they close 
in on the fish, forming a living net about them. Every pelican keeps its 
place in the half-circle. Thus the company can satisfy their appetites 
by eating of the captured fish. The pelican has a bag-net bill, in which 
it can carry fish. 

The kingfisher, the heron, the gannet, the gull, the cormorant, the 
tern, the petrel, and many more birds go to the water for their food. 
The kingfisher appears very wise as he sits on a bough overhanging 
the water, apparently innocent. Suddenly, like a flash, he darts beneath 
the water, satisfying himself with a good catch of fish. 

There are birds that rob other birds of their food. The poor pel¬ 
ican as it comes home with its crop full of fish is attacked by the cara- 
cara-eagle and, in order to escape with its life, must yield up its fish. 
Gulls rob the nests of other birds and will eat small adult birds. Rooks 
and ravens have been known to fill their larders with mice, frogs, eggs, 
small birds, and insects. Crows, magpies, and jays also practise robbery. 

There is a bird in South Africa that perches on the bodies of rhi¬ 
noceroses and other large animals, and devours the ticks with which 
their hides are infested. 

There is still another bird that finds its living in a very peculiar 
way. When the crocodile has finished his meal, eaten until he is satis¬ 
fied, he will lie on the bank with his frightful mouth wide open. This 


42 


THINGS IN NATURE 


bird, called the sicsac, or crocodile-bird, walks into the crocodile’s 
mouth, and picks the food from his teeth, making itself a toothpick for 
this great reptile—a queer way of securing a livelihood. 

The crocodile knows this bird is there and makes no attempt to take 
its life. When danger is near the bird raises a cry, and by this the huge 
reptile, lying so lazily on the bank, knows danger is near and quickly, 
on release of the bird, closes his mouth, slides into the water, and is 
saved. The bird finds its food in the crocodile’s teeth and in turn 
gives a warning that enables the crocodile to escape harm. A very 
peculiar friendship, and yet in some way nature has given them this 
agreement, or understanding. 

The thrush feeds largely on snails. Using its bill as a sort of ham¬ 
mer, it can, by taking the snail to a stone, force open the shell and obtain 
the eatable portion. 

Many birds live on insects, some catching their food on the ground, 
and others while flying through the air. There is a bird in Australia 
that smells its food in the ground, then probes for it. The name of this 
bird is kiwi. Vultures get their food from carcases of dead animals. 

Many of our feathered friends do a vast amount of good for agri¬ 
culture by eating large numbers of worms and insects that otherwise 
would destroy crops. —Opal F. Brookover. 


A WALK IN THE WOODS 

I walked in the woods one autumn day, 

In the deep woods where the squirrels play, 

Where the bright leaves fall from the tree-tops high 
To the cold, bare earth where they fade and die. 

I heard as I walked in the friendly wood, 

A medley of sounds which I well understood; 

’Twas the murmuring voice of the autumn breeze 
As it sighed in the heights of the giant trees, 

And the answering tone of the rustling leaf 
Which whispered of parting, of tears, and grief; 
’Twas the dropping of nuts and the skurry of feet 
Of a score of young woodfolks so ready to eat 
The walnuts and acorns, the black haws and red, 
Which lie in the lap of the forest thick spread. 



A WALK AMONG THE HILLS 


43 


I thought of the seasons that come and go. 

Each bringing a change of raiment to throw 
O’er the numerous trees. I wondered, too. 

How the trees can exchange old raiment for new. 

In springtime gay dresses of blossoms they wear; 

In summer thick garments of green leaves they bear; 
In autumn a robe of mixed colors they don; 

In winter a blanket of snow they put on. 

O wonderful Nature! you taught them, I know. 

How God had intended that forests should grow. 


—Elsie E. Egermeier. 


A WALK AMONG THE HILLS 


HEN SNOW LIES white on the hillsides, and streams and brooks 



▼ V are still held fast in the icy chain of winter, through the tree-tops 
comes the wailing of the wind, and there seems no hope of the near 
approach of spring. But for all the frost and snow and howling winds, 
. we know that in a few weeks more the sun will be melting the snow and 
the icicles, and bringing into' view hundreds of plants whose wet, shining 
leaves are even now growing, and blossoms forming under the snow. 
The brave song of a venturesome bird is already trilling the glad tidings, 
and the warm south wind is tempering the breath of the frozen north. 

Spring among the hills is full of beauty; and nothing can give a 
greater inspiration than a gradual climb to higher and higher levels, 
enjoying the beauties of the way, and rising ever to where the view grows 
broader and more wonderful. Where the glint of the sunbeams is gild¬ 
ing the slopes of the hills, up through the tangled wildwood, and under 
the rustling trees, a walk in the clear promise-filled air is a keen delight. 
But it must be taken with open eyes and ears, if you would gain its 
full meaning. 

For there are two ways of walking. One is a short cut between two 
points, taken wlith the object of getting as soon as possible from one to 
the other. The second is a much better one. This is to see the things 
that lie along the way, and let them tell you their story. If you see in 
the wayside pebble, only a stone that obstructs your path, and kick it 
impatiently aside, you are missing all the benefit the walk might give 
you. If you see in it a fragment from some great rock mass of past 



44 


THINGS IN NATURE 


ages, and read its story of centuries of rolling about in the bed of some 
forgotten stream, where it was worn into the round, smooth form it now 
wears, you are learning to walk in the way that holds pleasure and 
enjoyment. As. you look at the trees overhanging the path, have they 
no story to tell of the ages in which they have been growing there, and 
the changes they have seen? Probably many of them looked down on 
the sinuous form of the red man, fitting his arrows to the bow, and tak¬ 
ing aim at some wild creature that long ago disappeared from these 
hills! Doubtless the tepee once stood on this very ground, with the 
blazing campfires lighting up the dark night and sending long shadows 
back among these trees. 

Climbing hills and mountains takes perseverance and effort; but if 
you climb with your eye fixed on the interesting things that lie so thickly 
all about you, you will gain the summit before you realize it. And when 
you see the glorious view spread out beneath you, you will think it well 
worth all the trouble it cost, and be glad for the active outdoor exercise 
which went with it. Nothing worth while is gained without effort; and 
the effort itself makes us stronger, happier, and more courageous for 
the next task that comes. —Exchange. 


LEARNING ANIMAL LANGUAGE 

/^\NE OF THE MOST interesting diversions offered to any boy or 
girl is the cultivation of the acquaintance of animal pets—not the 
casual acquaintance which satisfies most people, but a working acquain¬ 
tance which develops into mutual understanding, capable of a higher 
development than is usually thought possible. All animals have more 
intelligence than they are credited with having. This is not recognized 
because our pets have gone as far as they can without our understanding 
them, and, by responding to them, leading them on. 

We must admit, to our shame, that they understand us more quickly 
than we do them. This is so because they study hard and learn quickly, 
while we make no effort to learn them. 

To illustrate: Some one gives you a dog or a cat, perhaps already 
named. You give it a new name, which it soon learns. Yet you may 
keep it for years and never learn the difference between one bark or 



LEARNING ANIMAL LANGUAGE 


45 


mow and another, because you do not notice that they are different, 
while they are. I have known hunters who studied their hounds’ bay 
till they were able to tell whether the game was running, holed, or treed; 
whether it was a fox, coon, or rabbit; and whether the trail was old, 
new, or lost. 

All animals have a language, and a working amount of it can be 
learned by us if we will study them as hard as they study to understand 
us. 

One of the most convenient schools for our first lesson is found 
in the chicken-yard. Put on your hat and come. You are the scholar 
and the chickens are the teachers. You will need your school manners. 
Be quiet, gentle, kind, and patient, and you will learn, if you try hard. 

Watch that old hen and chickens. Hear her talking in a quiet tone. 
Several chicks w&nder away and are lost to her view in the weeds. Now 
she raises her voice in a distinctly different tone and calls them back. 
Perhaps a little scolding follows and on they go. She finds a bug or 
worm. “Here is a fat worm,” she says, and every chick tries to beat 
the others in the race. Two grab it. A tug of war follows, till the worm 
parts. “Now, don’t be rude,” Biddy says. “There are more.” She 
goes on scratching, and turning over a stone discloses an ant-nest, with 
eggs. “Hurry, children, before they run away.” A big chicken (per¬ 
haps from her last family) understands, and comes running. 

“Shoo, you big fellow. Go away from my babies and scratch for 
yourself. ’ ’ 

Why, Biddie, I didn’t know you could be so cross. 

“Serves him right. He ought to know better.” 

Suddenly a strange dog comes past the fence. “Hurry, children, 
danger. ’ ’ And every yellow ball runs back of its mother, and not a peep 
is heard till she says, “All right; he’s gone,” then out they come as 
before, and on they go till the sun begins to drop. 

‘ ‘ Come on, children, ’ ’ and she starts for her house. Here she sits 
down, with her face toward the door and soon tucking every little fel¬ 
low in his feather bed, she sings to them in that low, croning tone till 
the little twitters grow softer and sleepier, and then all is still and 
school closes. — Exchange . 


46 


THINGS IN NATURE 


THE SOLAR SYSTEM 

HE FIXEID STARS must not be confused with the planets. The 
planets arranged in their order of distance from the sun are: Mer¬ 
cury, Venus, Earth, Mars, planetoids, or a group of several hundred 
smaller planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. 

Mercury is seldom seen; for it is so near the sun that it appears 
but for a short time after sunset near the western horizon, or for a short 
time before sunrise near the eastern horizon. It is not always seen in 
the same position. 

Venus, the most brilliant object ini the heavens except the sun and 
moon, takes a journey around the sun once in about seven months and 

a half. Its year, therefore, is much 
less than our year. It appears as an 
evening or morning star, but being 
farther from the sun than Mercury, 
it can be seen much longer after 
sunset or before sunrise at the prop¬ 
er seasons. Like the moon, it both 
shines by reflected light and has its 
various phases. 

The earth is the third planet in 
order of distance from the sun, and 
as to its size, length of days and 
years, I need here say nothing. 

Mars, next beyond the earth in 
order from the sun, has attracted 
unusual attention for several years, 
because of certain markings, called 
“ canals / 9 seen on it. Too, it has 
been thought to have a surface much 
like that of our earth. It has seasons even more marked than has the 
earth. During about one half its trip around the sun, its north pole 
is turned away from the sun, and during this time a bright white cap 
is seen around the pole. During the other half of its trip the same 
thing can be seen at its south pole, while the cap at the north pole 
seems to gradually disappear. These caps are thought to be ice, snow, 
and frost. Many believe this planet to be inhabited by an intelligent 





THE WONDERS OF THE SUN 


47 


race, but this is merely guesswork and can not be proved. Its day is 
about the same as ours, but it revolves around the sun in about twenty- 
three months. The planet has two moons. 

The planetoids are a number of small planets existing in space 
between Mars and Jupiter. Each planetoid has its independent orbit 
about the sun. Eight hundred planetoids are known, but they are so 
small that they can not be seen with the naked eye. 

Jupiter is the largest of the planets, and one of the most brilliant 
objects in the heavens. This planet rotates on its axis once in about 
ten hours, and the period of its revolution around the sun is about 
twelve years. Jupiter, therefore, appears to move very slowly among 
the fixed stars, and may be recognized, when once identified, for many 
months. Jupiter has at least eight moons. 

Saturn, next beyond Jupiter, is peculiar in that it has, in addition 
to eight moons, three remarkable rings made up of small particles 
which move about the planet. Saturn rotates on its axis in about ten 
hours and revolves around the sun in about thirty years. 

Uranus is in size about four times that of the earth, and the size 
of its orbit is about twice that of Saturn. 

Neptune, the farthest of the planets from the sun, is about half 
the size of Saturn. It is said never to come any closer than 2,760,000, 
000 miles to the sun and therefore is supposed to be a very cold planet. 
The earth’s closest point to the sun is about 91,000,000 miles. The revo¬ 
lution of Neptune around the sun covers a time of more than eighty 
years. 

Have you ever thought how wonderful it is that these planets, com¬ 
ets, etc., all keep revolving in space and still never collide? It is won¬ 
derful indeed, and only God could create such a universe and keep it 


— W. A. Bixler. 


going in such harmony. 


THE WONDERS OF THE SUN 


S WE WALK out-of-doors on a bright, sunshiny day, behold the 



great round sun, and feel its warm rays, how many of us ever stop 
to think of the wonders of this, the most conspicuous of the heavenly 
bodies? The sun has always been a wonder to all peoples. Some of 
the ancient peoples believed it to be a fiery chariot in which their great 



48 


THINGS IN NATURE 


god rode across the sky every day. But we know differently now. 
Astronomers, men who study the sky, tell us that it is a star of very 
moderate size. There are many stars probably much larger. A star 
named Canopus, which can not be seen from our hemisphere, is thought 
to he probably thirty thousand times larger than our sun. Nevertheless, 
if the sun were divided into a million equal parts, our earth would not 
even he as large as one of these parts. In other words, the sun is more 
than a million times larger than this earth. The diameter, or the dis¬ 
tance straight across its center, is said to he 865,000 miles, a distance 
we can hardly imagine. 

The sun is composed of hot gases. While it is possible for us to 
get the temperature of boiling water, the temperature of the atmos¬ 
phere, the temperature of an electric furnace, heated to an intense heat, 
therg is absolutely no means by which we can determine the tempera¬ 
ture of the sun. The heat of the furnace that can be made hottest is not 
to be compared with the heat of the surface of the sun. This intense 
heat gives the sun its flaming color. The heat also gives it its mighty 
powers. The body of the sun is in constant motion, sending out mighty 
flashes of hot gases. One of these flashes has been measured by astron¬ 
omers ’ instruments and found to be ten or more times as long as the 
distance across the earth. 

One very interesting thing about the sun is the spots that are seen 
on its surface. Astronomers call them sun-spots. These spots are 
very large in size and very dark. One of the largest that was ever seen 
was 143,000 miles in diameter, or equal to nearly six times the distance 
around the earth. The spots are usually circular when first formed, 
and they grow larger until finally a spot is developed which usually lasts 
two or three months. Seventeen months is the greatest length of time 
that any sun-spot has been known to remain. These spots move from 
one side of the face of the sun to the other. When large ones are pres¬ 
ent, they can be seen with the naked eye by looking through a smoked 
glass. 

There are also spots that are very light in color, even lighter than 
the sun. There are perhaps more of these than of the darker ones. 
It is thought that these lighter spots are caused by the upruslies of 
gases coming from the deeper parts of the sun. 

Let us now learn about some of the things the sun does for us. If 
we were left without a sun, all vegetation would cease, and no creature 


THE MOON 


49 


would be able to live upon the earth. The heat of the sun causes the 
evaporation of water, which finally returns to the earth in the form of 
rain. Through its power, food is made for plant-life. Nitrogen and 
carbon, which are necessary for plant-life, are separated from oxygen 
by the green properties in the plant, the sunlight being used as an in¬ 
strument for the separation. This separation is something that is very 
difficult for man to perform, but the plant finds it a very simple process, 
when aided by the sunlight. The sun gives every visible part of the 
earth light, color, and beauty. 

When we think of the great wonders of the sun and his benefits, 
we can readily understand why the early peoples worshiped him. They 
did not know the true God as we know him, and surely the sun seems to 
be his best representative, as far as might and power are concerned. 

One of the countries where the sun was worshiped is Peru. Her 
ruler, the Inca, was thought to be the representative or the descendant 
of the great god, the sun. The laws the Inca passed were sacred, and 
the slightest offense against them meant death. The temple at Cuzco, 
where the people came to worship, was called “Palace of Gold.” It 
was a beautiful edifice. On the western wall of the temple was 
a representation of the sun, the god of the nation. It was 
a human face made of gold. Golden rays radiated from this face 
in every direction, and as the sunbeams fell from the morning sun upon 
this brilliant face and reflected throughout the temple upon the plates 
and cornices of gold and golden images, it indeed seemed to make the 
temple “to glow with a sunshine more intense and glorious than that 
of nature.” —Alice B. Sprague . 


THE MOON 

H AVE YOU ever, on a clear, still evening, gone out and looked at 
the melon ? I often did when a child, and wondered at the smiling 
face it wore. Later I learned that the supposed eyes, nose, and mouth 
of the man in the moon were only mountains or irregularities on its 
surface. 

One beautiful moonlight evening some months ago I was permitted 
to look at the moon through a telescope. The telescope seemed to draw 
the moon closer, and its surface looked somewhat like a kettle of boil- 



50 


THINGS IN NATURE 


ing starch, except that there was no motion on the moon. It looked 
brighter in some places than in others. These bright places, we are told, 
are high plains or mountain tops on which the sunlight strikes. The 
darker places are the shadows of the mountains and the dark valleys. 

Persons wlm make a study of the sun, moon, and stars, are called 
astronomers. They know! how to measure the distance between these 
great bodies and the earth. They know how large those bodies are, how 
heavy, what they are made of, etc. They have even measured the 
heights of the mountains in the moon and the depths of the valleys. 
From these men we learn many strange things about the far-off planet 
in the sky. 

If it were possible for us to visit the moon, we should have to take 
with us air to breathe ; for we are told there is no air about the moon. 
We also should have to take with us our food and water-supply; for 
nothing grows there that we could eat, and there are no clouds or rain 
there. Nothing that lives is upon it—at least, nothing that breathes 
air, as all living things on earth do. Absolute silence reigns there; no 
ripple of streamlet, song of bird, or even roar of thunder is ever heard. 
What a strange world! It is much colder on the moon than it is here, 
and there would be nothing to make a fire of. So we should not stay 
long. 

If we had to walk home from the moon and walking w&s good 
enough to make twenty miles a day, we should have to spend thirty 
years on the road, for the distance is nearly ten times around our earth. 
How many miles is that? We should be glad to get home, I am sure; 
for of all the planets God has made, this earth is to us the most beauti¬ 
ful. 


VIEWING THE COMET 

^VJ/'AKE) UP, children,” said mother early one morning, “and 
* ' come to an east window. The comet’s tail can be seen above the 
mountain. ’ ’ 

For weeks the approaching comet had been a topic of much dis¬ 
cussion, not only around the firesides, but in school and on the streets 
as well. The papers had predicted the time of its appearance, and boys 
and girls, as well as men and women, were anxiously watching for it. 
So Victoria and Helen eagerly arose and hurried to the window 



VIEWING THE COMET 


51 


to see—well, just what? They were very curious to know, for they had 
never seen a comet’s tail before. 

On looking toward the eastern sky, they saw a streak of light, which 
reached far up into the heavens. It seemed rather narrow near the 
horizon, but broadened toward the zenith. Mother felt sure the comet 
would not rise above the hilltop until after dawn. So> the girls, accom¬ 
panied by their brother, who also had been awakened to see this rare 
visitor, set out to seek a view of it. After walking a distance of one and 
a half miles, having rounded the spur of the mountain that had ob¬ 
structed their view, they came in sight of the comet. They were some¬ 
what disappointed, perhaps; for it looked just like a star hanging low 
in the east, except for the long stream of light they had learned to call 
its tail. However, they felt repaid for their long tramp. 

But could they have looked through a large telescope, they wlould 
have seen that the head of the comet had a bright spot in the center, 
called the nucleus., and around this a cloud of misty stuff. All comets 
have a nucleus surrounded by a haze, or luminous vapors, which some¬ 
times presents a hairy appearance. The word 4 ‘comet” comes from the 
Greek word which means hair, and was applied to these heavenly bodies 
on account of this hairy appearance. 

Comets, on account of their infrequent appearance perhaps, have 
often been regarded with terror. The appearance of Halley’s comet 
in 1456, just as the Turks had captured Constantinople and threatened 
an advance into Europe, filled the inhabitants of Europe with supersti¬ 
tious dread, and they added the following to one of their prayers: 
“Lord, save us from the devil, the Turk, and the comet.” 

We are told that there are in the heavens many comets besides 
those that go around the sun as regularly as the earth does. Since, 
however, comets are comparatively small and are not seen at a great 
distance, like the stars, we do not see them unless they happen to visit 
our sun, having become attracted by its drawing power. 

The comets that belong to the solar system travel in elliptical paths 
which take them far out beyond the orbit of Neptune, the farthest known 
planet. We see them only 1 when they are near the sun. In this part of 
its path, a comet travels much faster than when it is a greater distance 
from the sun. 

The sun has other powerful effects upon a comet when it is near 
him than that of increasing its speed. The most noticeable of these is 


52 


THINGS IN NATURE 


observed in the variations of the tail. As the comet approaches nearer 
and nearer the sun, the tail lengthens, bnt it does not reach its greatest 
length until it has passed the point in its orbit nearest the sun. As 
the comet journeys away from the sun again, the tail becomes shorter 
and shorter, and, instead of following the comet, goes before it; in other 
words, this stream of light is always on the opposite side of the comet 
from the sun. In ancient times it was called the 4 ‘beard’’ when it pre¬ 
ceded the comet. Scientists consider this phenomenon as being due to 
some repelling force of the sun which drives away from the head of 
the comet the luminous particles which form the tail. 

Astronomers have found out many interesting facts about comets, 
and doubtless other interesting discoveries will be made concerning 
these wonderful heavenly bodies. 


WHAT WE SEE AT NIGHT 

\I7HEN BUT A mere lad, I learned a stanza, the sentiment of which 
** always excites within me an admiration for the starry worlds 
above. It is: 

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star; 

How I wonder what you are 
Up above the world so high 
Like a diamond in the sky.” 

I have always enjoyed being out on a bright, starry night, and on 
such occasions I look, without fail, for the little dipper, the big dipper, 
and the north star. I used to wonder what caused the milky way and 
how many stars there really were in the heavens. I often remark that it 
is no wonder David said: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, 
and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor lan¬ 
guage, where their voice is, not heard. ’ ’ 

It is hard for our finite minds to grasp the greatness of this world 
of ours. This earth on which we live is only one of many planets, some 
of which are many times larger than it is. Then think of the millions 
upon millions of stars in the sky! Generally, we speak of the sky as 
being above us, but it is not only above us, it extends in every direction 
from this earthly ball far, far out in space, farther than the eye can see 
even with the best of telescopes. 



WHAT WE SEE) AT NIGHT 


53 


By instruments, astronomers have been able to measure distances 
very accurately. As a surveyor can measure the distance from one 
mountain-top to another, astronomers can very nearly tell the distances 
from the earth to the moon, sun, planets, and stars. 

It is said that were a train to travel a mile a minute and keep up 
that speed the trip around this earth would be made in less than eighteen 
days. Yet it would take a long time for such trains as these, which dash 
past us almost before we can see them, to travel from the earth to the 
different planets, as the following will show: 

166 days from Earth to Moon. 

oO years from Earth to Venus. 

76 years from Earth to Mars. 

110 years from Earth to Mercury. 

177 years from Elarth to Sun. 

740 years from Earth to Jupiter. 

1,470 years from Earth to Saturn. 

3,150 years from Earth to Uranus. 

5,055 years from Earth to Neptune. 

40,000,000 years from Earth to nearest star. 

As far as we know, there is no end to space, and there may be mil¬ 
lions of other heavenly bodies far beyond those we really know about. 

Without a telescope, a person with good eyes is thought to be able 
to see on a fine night about three thousand stars from any one place. 
According to their brightness, the stars have been classed by astrono¬ 
mers into what are called magnitudes. Of the three thousand stars men¬ 
tioned, about seven rank in the brightest class, or first magnitude, and 
seventy in the second. Stars of the first magnitude are considered to 
be one hundred times as bright as those of the sixth. 

Before the invention of telescopes, the ancients, viewing the starry 
heavens as we do with our naked eyes, thought that there were only about 
three thousand stars, but through the telescope, stars of the seventh, 
eighth, and up to the sixteenth magnitudes become distinctly visible. 
By the aid of the largest telescope the original three thousand has 
swelled, say the astronomers, to more than twenty million; and who 
knows but that if we had glasses twice as strong, we could see twenty 
million more? 

To make clear their assertion, astronomers have mapped the starry 


54 


THINGS IN NATURE 


heavens into sections, and by using the same strong telescopes have 
taken photographs of each section. On the photographic prints the 
count was made. The task of photographing the different sections of 
the sky was no small one; for every continent, as well as the islands of 
the sea, had to be visited. 

In order to take a photograph of any of the planets or stars a long 
exposure is necessary, as long as from one to ten. hours. As you know>, 
the photographic plate must be kept in perfect focus all the time. If a 
telescope is pointed at a star and not moved, the star will soon have 
passed across the field of view of the telescope. This is because the tel¬ 
escope stands on the revolving earth and turns with it. To counteract 
the effect of this revolving motion of the earth on its axis, necessitates 
the use of a telescope fitted with what is called an equatorial mounting; 
that is, a mounting driven by clockwork moving in a direction opposite 
that in which the earth is moving. The image of the object photo¬ 
graphed can thus be kept stationary on the photographic plate during 
the exposure. Thus, complete photographs of every portion of the 
starry heavens can be made to reveal a vast universe far too great for 
our finite minds to comprehend. — Wm\. A. Bixler. 


A SATURDAY AFTERNOON'S WALK IN BIRDLAND 

T HE STUDY of bird-life is a never-ending source of enjoyment, 
and I look forward with pleasure to a walk in the woods to study 
the birds. 

One Saturday afternoon, about thirty of us, most of whom were 
boys and girls, took a walk through a woods close to our city. We all 
kept a sharp lookout for all the different kinds of birds we could see 
and many of the company who had notebooks and pencils recorded the 
different kinds, while others with field- or opera-glass watched the dif¬ 
ferent birds at a distance. 

The robin, so common with us was to he seen here and there, and 
his 1 ‘ cheerily-cheerup ’’ rang out loud and clear on the spring atmos¬ 
phere. The English sparrow’s saucy and almost impudent way aroused 
our interest only a little, hut a small flock in a blossoming fruit-tree 
made such a noise that we could not help noticing them. The song- 



A SATURDAY AFTERNOON’S WALK IN BIRDLAND 


55 


sparrow sat upon a small willow by the river’s edge and burst out in 
such sweet notes that none of us could keep from admiring him. 

Along the water’s edge was the purple grackle (conpnonly called 
the crow-blackbird) flying here and there, uttering his harsh “tchack” 
and a squeaking song, while with him, or rather in his company, was 
the cowbird and a red-winged blackbird. The redwing loves to cling to 
a slender twig or tall rush and utter a pleasing liquid 4 4 conkerr-ee, ” 
given with much bowing and spreading of the wings and tail. 

Close to where the blackbirds were we saw the cardinal perched 
upon a large willow. His loud, clear whistle attracted our attention. 
Then a catbird with its dark gray coat and a black cap flew across the 
murmuring water below and perched upon a tree, where he spent some 
time singing, apparently making up his song as he went along, with now 
and then various mews and cat-calls. 

As we left the river and came to the upland, we saw several blue¬ 
birds flying about the grass and upon a stump, occasionally uttering 
their short, sweet warble. We also saw meadow-larks in abundance in 
the fields. Perched upon a stump or post, with beak in the air and with 
his pretty yellow breast displayed, a lark would call out, 4 4 Spring of the 
year! Spring of the year! ’ ’ 

Flying from the grass up to the branches of the trees were several 
brown thrashers. They may have been building nests, but apparently 
they were playing. They were very quiet while we were near, but their 
song is a bright, cheerful carol. 

A rapidly repeated whistle, 44 Cuk! Cuk! Cuk!” and an emphatic 
4 4 Quit-u! Quit-u! ’ ’ caused us to look about for flickers, or highholes as 
they are sometimes called. Presently we discovered one, with his 
brownish coat and a spot of red upon his head. 

As we approached a pine-tree, a turtle-dove quickly flew away, re¬ 
vealing the fact that her nest was there. Here we saw the rudely con¬ 
structed nest about six feet from the ground with two light-colored eggs 
in it. Each child took his turn in being lifted up so he could see the 
nest. 

A sparrow-hawk flew about and alighted in a tree close by. This 
species is one of the best kn6wn and most handsome, as well as the 
smallest, of North-American hawks. 

Upon the same tree we saw a red-headed woodpecker and yellow- 
bellied sapsucker climbing and jumping around the tree, pecking here 


56 


THINGS IN NATURE 


and there for insects. The latter bird is responsible for the many holes 
bored through the bark of different kinds of trees. 

In a pile of brush was seen a field sparrow and a junco, the latter 
being easily recognized by the white or pinkish bill, and when flying, 
by the outer white tail-feathers. 

A blue jay flew across our path, and with his scolding notes seem¬ 
ingly tried to frighten us away, as well as all birds other than his kind, 
but he succeeded in neither. 

A nuthatch, with bluish back, jumped quickly round and round the 
tree with his head always downward. He apparently was finding tiny 
insects in the bark of the trees. His notes were^a nasal “yank-yank” 
and a repeated “ya-ya” all on the same pitch. 

The rain began to fall, and we started toward home with a list of 
twenty birds that we had seen in the afternoon walk of only one and one 
half hours, when we saw another—a crow—flying low over a field of 
growing wheat. — Wm. A. Bixler. 


WHY THE ORIOLE’S NEST IS HUNG 

W HEN YOU were looking at the deserted birds’ nests, which are so 
easy to find after the leaves have fallen, did you ever notice an 
oriole’s nest swinging on the very tip of a bough'? And did you wonder 
why the orioles had hung it there instead of placing it in the solid 
crotch of a tree or in a secure place in the ground ? 

If you have ever seen a collection of tropical birds, you will remem¬ 
ber that nearly all of them have very brilliant colors. You know too 
that the oriole is one of the brightest-colored birds that come to spend 
their summer in our country. The oriole is a tropical bird, too, in a way. 
He has cousins who live in the jungles of warm Southern climates. 
Some people even tell us that he used to live there himself. Now in 
those jungles there are snakes, dozens, yes, hundreds of snakes. They 
all like birds’ eggs. If the nest is on a solid limb or in a tuft of grass 
the snake can easily find himself a nice breakfast. So when the heav¬ 
enly Father, who loves birds, was giving them the nest-building in¬ 
stinct, he planned for the orioles and some of their cousins among the 



YOUNG BIRDS 


57 


tropical birds to swing their nests from the tips of slender houghs 
where eggs and birdlings would be safe from snakes. 

—Martina Gardner Owen. 


YOUNG BIRDS 

T O THE LOVER of nature there is nothing which gives him more 
pleasure than the study of the habits of birds. We have told you 
something about the nests. We will now tell you something about the 
young birds. 

The mouths of young birds are remarkably large. In nearly every 
instance the mouth is much out of proportion with the rest of the body. 
Upon the least noise the mouths open for food. Although the nest may 

be full of young, the mother 
bird deals out to each one its 
portion, even if she brings the 
food for only one at a time. 

The young kingfishers in 
the picture were taken from 
the nest and placed side by 
side on a log as you see them, 
and there they sat, afraid to 
move, lest they should fall into 
the water beneath. The birds 
were about half-grown and 
seemed to wonder why they 
were put into such a position. 
Young birds seem to be 
possessed with an instinct of using great caution about the nest, for fear 
of falling overboard. Yet sometimes young birds fall from the nest 
and are either dashed to death by their fall or else are captured by cats, 
snakes, or other enemies. 

Recently a baby wren was found upon the walk. Kinowing that a 
pair of wrens had a nest in a bird-house in a neighbor's yard, the finder 
carried the young bird and put it upon the perch in front of the nest. 
Presently the parent bird came out, looked with wonder, and began 
chirping. Evidently the baby bird did not belong there, as the old bird 



Young kingfishers 




58 


THINGS IN NATURE 


impolitely pushed it off the perch to fall into the bushes below. It was 
then returned to the place where it was found. In a short time some 
other birds came, which were, no doubt, the parents, and soon they all 
disappeared. 

A close watch was made of a pair of finches building a nest. On 
June 24 the nest was completed, on the 27th it contained three eggs, on 
July 6 the eggs hatched, and the 16th the young were able to* leave the 
nest. In other words, it took nineteen days for the finches to produce 
and hatch the eggs and rear their little family, or about four weeks to 
build a nest and send forth the young birds to the world. 

A watch wlas also made of a pair of golden eagles in southern Cali¬ 
fornia. A large sycamore-tree away up in the mountains had been oc¬ 
cupied by a pair of golden eagles year after year. During the first week 
in March, just as the sycamore was budding out, a couple of dull-white 
eggs were laid in a rude nest built of about a cart-load of limbs and 
sticks, which were worked into the branches of a topmost fork in the 
tree. The materials were made into a sort of platform five feet across, 
not carelessly put together, but each stick woven in to add strength to 
the whole structure, as stones are built into a house. 

The eggs were not hatched till the third of April. The young were 
covered with snowy down, which lasted for a month, during which the 
young grew from egg-size to the size of a large hen. The first week in 
May black pin-feathers began to show through the down upon the wings 
and back. The first week in June the eaglets were fairly well clothed 
in a coat of dark brown and black, except a white breast. It required 
three weeks longer for the wings to gain strength enough to handle 
their heavy bodies. So while the finch required only four weeks to 
rear a family, the eagle required four months. 


THE NEST-BUILDERS 



l HE HOME-BUILDING instinct displayed by our feathered friends 


-*■ is next to human. Wherever we go—over mountain and plain 
through valleys and beside the waters, and especially in the woods— 
we find all kinds of bird-homes—nests. 

Each kind of bird has its peculiarities in nest-building, differing 



THE NEST-BUILDERS 


59 


from other birds in some way, as in choice of material or of location, 
in size or shape of nest, etc. 

In one of our pictures we have a nest of what is called the Brew¬ 
er’s blackbird in an old half-rotted pile forming part of the wharf in 
Lake Tahoe, Cal. As the portion of the pile above the water rotted, 

there was left a small hollow. Here 
the bird in a remarkable way se¬ 
cured her nest to make it safe, and 
then she laid her little eggs and 
hatched her brood of young without 
any particular concern of her own 
safety or that of her brood. 

While the baby birdies were 
growing, she lovingly fed them. 
While they were stretching out their 
wings and were still unable to fly, 
she did not seem uneasy as to their 
safety, although with an ever- 
watching eye she sat close by. Wlien 
the little wings were sufficiently 
strong, the young birds must have 
been able to rise to the pier above; 
for had they fallen into the waters 
beneath, they would have stood a 
poor chance of being rescued. No 
doubt, the mother bird was present 
when they made their first attempt 
to fly, and it may be she was ready 
to give aid in some way if the little ones were unable to rise to a safe 
place when once they started. 

Birds have been seen to fly beneath their young and bear them up 
when the unpractised wings began to falter; and this may have been 
the case here. Anyhow, the brood left the nest in safety. 

As birds show some traits almost human, it seems they would 
select a nesting-place in a less dangerous spot, but it appears they fear 
nothing in this respect. In selecting such places they feel secure from 
their enemies—cats, dogs, squirrels, skunks, foxes, owls, crows, jays, 
snakes, and sometimes the thoughtless boy. 



The blackbird’s nest 




60 


THINGS IN NATURE 


In Hie second of our pictures we have the nest and eggs of a sora- 
rail built among the flags in a marsh near Rowlands, Lake Tahoe, Cal. 
The flag is a plant having broad, heavy leaves and growing in wet and 
marshy ^places, even in the water. Several stalks, or leaves, are fast¬ 
ened together, and the nest is built on this foundation. Thus a place 
about a foot above water is' secured. The flags are then bent over and 

neatly fastened, an opening being left 
for the bird to enter. As a general rule 
the opening is left smaller than that 
shown in the picture. This one was 
enlarged so that a better photograph 
of the inside could be obtained. The 
nest is so nearly covered that it could 
easily be passed without detection. 

It is a very common thing for 
blackbirds to build their nests in the 
flags. The redwing, however, gener¬ 
ally builds higher above the water, 
and then she can be seen swaying to 
and fro in the wind. 

It is said that years ago an artist 
was asked to paint a picture depicting 
his idea of perfect rest. It was sup¬ 
posed he would paint such a subject 
as a babe in its mother’s arms; but, to 
the surprize of all, he painted a bird 
in its nest with its young. The nest 
was away out on a bough of a tree 
overhanging a dangerous precipice, 
over which the waters dashed and roared. There she undoubtedly felt 
safe and secure, and seemed so restful and calm even while the wind 
swayed the branches to and fro. 







MORE ABOUT OUR NEST-BUILDERS 61 

MORE ABOUT OUR NEST-BUILDERS 

'"pHE! MORE We study nature, the more we love it; and we can not 
help loving it, because the nearer we get to nature the nearer we 
get to God, and God is love. 

The more we study nature, the more we desire to see our feath¬ 
ered friends protected and cared for, and the more interested we be¬ 
come in the smallest details of their habits. 

Here we have a photo of the nest and eggs of the hermit warbler. 


Nest and eggs of tlie hermit warbler 

See how pretty the nest looks with the five spotted eggs in it! But it is 
unnecessary to describe birds’ nests here, as almost every boy and girl 
has seen them. But have you noticed how neatly they are made, how 
carefully they are fastened to the bough, and how nicely they are fin¬ 
ished to fit the mother bird as she sits upon the eggs or over her brood? 
And just think! All this work is done by the little beak and feet, but 
mostly the beak. It is interesting to watch the birds gather straws, 
cord, hair, and feathers. How diligently they work to build their little 
home! 







62 


THINGS IN NATURE 


It is a known fact that birds have built their nests and, being un¬ 
disturbed, have reared their young, gone to the South for the winter, 
and returned the next season to the same nesting-place. Year after 
year they have done this, and they have seemed to show how happy and 
contented they were when they were unmolested. 

In order to get the photograph shown here, the camera had to be 
held above the nest and the picture taken downward. 

How many of you.can tell what kind of tree this is, by its leaves? 
By studying the little peculiarities of birds and trees we can learn to 
readily distinguish the different kinds at first sight. » 

Instinct causes many birds to build their nests in places out of 
danger of being molested. Although at times the eggs and the young 
are thrown from their lofty perch by storms, yet there is only a small 
per cent of loss in this way as compared with the loss that would result 
from building nests in places more secure but more easily accessible 
to enemies. 

The nesting bird often puts up a desperate fight to protect her eggs 
or young. A bird, commonly called the butcher-bird, builds its nest 
where its enemies can get to it without much difficulty, and snakes, as 
a rule, love to feast on the eggs or the young. But the butcher-bird will 
fight the snake, and in the majority of cases will kill it by pouncing 
quickly upon it and picking it severely, and then flying away before it 
can harm her. 

After killing a snake this bird has been seen to hang it upon a barb¬ 
wire fence by inserting one of the barbs in the snake’s neck about the 
throat. This seems almost incredible, but in communities where these 
birds and snakes are common, the writer has seen as many as six snakes 
hanging on a barbwire fence, as has been described. The snakes were 
the striped kind, commonly called garter snakes. 

Many birds that nest on the ground, as many of the birds of the 
Northwest plains, are apparently not careful to hide their nests, but, 
on the contrary, put them in an open place so the mother bird can see 
any approaching enemy. Their eggs, however, are often of a color re¬ 
sembling the dry grass or the stones. The writer has spent as much 
as half an hour in search of a nest which he knew to be right before his 
eyes, but which he could not see. Nature has in this way provided 
protection to these feathered creatures. 

The mother bird is also very cautious and leaves the nest as soon 


GKET ACQUAINTED WITH THEj BIRDS 


63 


as a person comes near, so as to avoid having her nest discovered. She 
will also try to draw yon after her by making you believe she is hurt. 
She will flutter and act as if she had been wounded; but when she has led 
you far from her nest, she will rise and fly away and will not return till 
you have left the vicinity of her nest. 

Birds are our friends. Without them we could not be as happy as 
we are. So let us encourage them by protecting their nests and by put¬ 
ting up nest-boxes. You will be more pleased to see how happy they 
appear when they know you will not hurt them. 


GET ACQUAINTED WITH THE BIRDS 


0 TAKE a natural history into the library or even to a cool corner 



A of the porch and there spend our time allotted to that subject in 
reading and cramming our minds full of facts and interesting stories 
about animal or plant life, is not the best way to study nature. We 
should go out into the fields and woods where we can come in contact 
with living things, and we must cultivate the habit of observing closely 
the things we may find there. 

Now is an excellent time to study the habits of our feathered 
friends. It is interesting to keep a record of the birds as they come 
from the sunny South to rear their broods and to cheer our spring and 
summer days with their merry song. Not only should we keep the dates 
on which we first see different birds after their arrival, but wle shall also 
be interested in noting the time spent in building the nest, in hatching 
the young and in rearing the baby birds. 

Perhaps our earliest comer is the bluebird. We are most likely to 
hear his charming note on a bright March morning. 

He is active in exploring boxes and cavities in search of a suitable 
home, but he seems to leave the choice of the place entirely to his mate. 
She brings all the material and does all the work, while he acts as guard 
and encourages her with gesture and song. While she is sitting, he 
feeds her regularly. 

Soon after the bluebird comes the robin. “In large numbers they 
scour the fields and groves. You hear their piping in the meadow, 
in the pasture, on the hillside.” “At sunset, on the tops of the tall 



64 


THINGS IN NATURE 


maples, with look heavenward, and in a spirit of utter abandonment, he 
carols his simple strain. And sitting thus amid the stark, silent trees, 
above the wet, cold earth, with the chill of winter still in the air, there 
is no fitter or sweeter songster in the whole round year. ’ ’ 

The robin often builds his nest near dwellings. Mr. John Bur¬ 
roughs tells of a pair of robins that built on the plate under the porch 

roof of his cabin. When the young 
were about ready to fly he noticed 
that one was more advanced than the 
others. Whether the parent birds 
had intentionally given it extra 
quantities of food so as to be able to 
launch their offspring one at a time 
was a question. However, one of 
the birds was ready to leave the nest 
a day and a half before any of the 
others. 

Mr. Burroughs happened to be 
watching it when it made its first at¬ 
tempt to leave the nest. Its parents 
were encouraging it with calls from 
some rocks a few yards away. It 
answered their calls, and then 
climbed over the edge of the nest 
upon the plate. It got about a yard 
away from the nest, to where it could 
look into free space, but its courage 
seemed to fail and it returned to the 
nest and climbed into it. A few 
hours later it went to the end of the plate, but it returned again to the 
nest. The third time it leaped into the air, and flew easily to some 
rocks a dozen or more yards away. 

In a similar manner each of the young left the nest in succession, 
at intervals of nearly a day. 

There are so many interesting things about the habits of different 
birds! Keep your ears and eyes alert to the songs and actions of the 
birds and see how many new things you can learn about them. 



The bluebird 







A BIRD’S SONG 


65 


A BIRD’S SONG 

TF YOU WANT some brisk mental exercise of real educational value, 
suppose you learn the tune or air of your favorite bird’s song. 

This is the way one author of bird lore describes the song of one 
of the hermit birds: “It consisted of but one clause, composed of a 
single emphasized note followed by two triplets on a descending scale. 
While retaining the relative value of these few notes, he varied the 
effect almost infinitely, by changing both the key and the pitch con¬ 
stantly, with such skill that I was astonished to discover the remark¬ 
able simplicity of the song. A striking quality of it was an attempt 
which he frequently made to utter his clause higher on the scale than 
he could reach, so that the triplets became a sort of trill or tremolo at 
the very extreme of his register. Sometimes he gave the triplets alone 
without the introductory note; but never in the weeks I studied his 
song did he give other than this one clause.” 

Is not this a beautiful description of a bird’s song? Can you de¬ 
scribe your bird’s song so well? Note the influence of the songs of 
various birds— 

From the river-bank you hear the sand-piper’s “Ah-weet-weet- 
weet, ’ ’ reminding you of the banks and rushes. Then comes the melan¬ 
choly “pewee” or a cheerful chickadee-song. 

From one quarter comes a low yearning “wee-o” that breaks into 
a matchless solemn mysterious melody; while from another, you get a 
rapturous thrilling rhapsody. Sometimes, as you listen to the song¬ 
sters, you seem to feel that you are in a holy cathedral, while again 
some woods warbler brings to you the rush and hurry of the world 
around you. 

What a blessing birds are! When our brains are tired and wor¬ 
ried by the din, clatter, jingle, and discord that surround us, how re¬ 
freshing it is to hear the birds sing! And each one seems to have its 
place. The little brown thrush never sits quiet because the canary 
trills. There is no jealousy manifested as to merits. Each one boldly 
does his part. When we are worried over the things we can not help 
and that try to fret us, let us, like the birds, go where we, unfettered, 
may find peace and rest to pur bodies. — Mabel C. Porter . 



66 


THINGS IN NATURE 


HOW BIRDS AND ANIMALS SLEEP 

M OST PERSONS probably sleep lying on the right or left side of 
the body, with the knees drawn up toward the chin. But certain 
African tribes lie on the back and let the head, or rather the back of the 
neck, rest on a bar of wood that is supported on two short pillars. The 
elephant, apparently invariably, and the horse, commonly, sleep stand¬ 
ing. This is really astonishing. Besides the difficulty of maintaining 
the balance of the body during long periods of unconsciousness, it 
would seem that there must be some necessity for resting the muscles 
of the legs. Cattle usually sleep lying down, and during many hours 
of the day they lie down. 

More curious still, there are creatures that sleep while they hang 
head downward, suspended by the hind feet. Among these are the bats. 
The hanging-parrots of India and the Malayan region have the same 
strange habit. In this they differ from all other birds, which invari¬ 
ably sleep with the head turned tailward in among the feathers between 
the wing and the body—not actually under the wing, as people generally 
believe. No satisfactory explanation has ever been offered to account 
for this strange habit. It is followed even by the penguins, whose 
feathers are so short they do not completely cover the beak. 

Certain birds sleep while they rest on one leg. That curious pose 
is best seen in long-legged birds, like storks and gulls. Ducks generally 
sleep on open water, and in order to keep fsom drifting shoreward, and 
therefore into the danger zone, they paddle constantly with one foot, 
so that the body is always circling around the chosen sleeping area. 

The sloth sleeps suspended by its feet, with the head tucked in 
between the forelegs. 

No animal except man ever sleeps upon its back. 

It is commonly believed that some animals never sleep, but that is 
because they do not close their eyes. Hares, snakes, and fishes are 
creatures of this sort, but all of them do sleep regularly. Whales and 
their kin are often spoken of as sleepless creatures; for it is supposed 
that if they lost consciousness, they would promptly drown. 

As a rule, darkness induces sleep, but with many creatures—bats 
and owls, for example—the opposite is the case. That reversal of the 
natural order has been brought about by the nature of the animals ’ 
feeding-habits. 


MAKE FRIENDS OF THE BIRDS 


67 


It is difficult to say where sleep begins, and we shall perhaps he 
near the truth if we regard it as universal among living things. In 
the case of plants it is caused by darkness, save for certain bacteria 
and fungi, which, like evil deeds, grow under the cover of night. 


MAKE FRIENDS OF THE BIRDS 

4 YOU WANT to experience the thrilling joy of being a successful 
A and appreciated landlord to a host of grateful and happy renters, 
put up houses for the feathered folk on your premises, and be a friend 

to the birds / 9 urges The Farm Journal 
Liberty Bell Bird Club, Philadelphia, 
Pa. 

It cautions us, however, before 
erecting bird homes to find out just ♦ 
what feathered prospects frequent our 
communities, and how many occupants 
we can comfortably accommodate. Then 
it advises a careful study of the loca¬ 
tion; for bird tenants, mind you, have 
as decided notions about where they 
want to live as do human house-liunters ’ 
and if you want your bird-houses occu¬ 
pied you will have to put them where 
the birds prefer to stay. 

The sociable martins will consent to 
he close, but not too near neighbors to 
your own dwelling. Bluebirds like broad 
acres of orchard or pastures. Thrashers 
and catbirds desire the seclusion of 
shrubbery, while the robin likes wild, rustic scenery. Swallows are 
partial to good views, and like open stretches of country, while song- 
sparrows will condescend to weedy swales and brush fences. Birds of 
a feather do not always flock together, and strangers of the winged 
tribes will live close together more peaceably than will relatives. 

When it comes to the kind of a house to build, you must study the 
individual tastes of the most desirable class of tenants. In the North, 



Feed-house used as summer cottage 







68 


THINGS IN NATURE 


the martins like a modern apartment sky-scraper, though they have 
been known to use many gourds strung together on a high pole as sum¬ 
mer cottages in the South. Mrs. Wren, who demands a separate estab¬ 
lishment far removed from prying neighbors, will occupy a single gourd 
home or a tomato-can, if placed in the shade. She has been known to 
appropriate a sprinkling-can or mail-box in which to rear her young. 
The log-cabin made from a natural or artificially hollowed log is pre¬ 
ferred by the flickers and nuthatches. Mr. Robin and Miss Phoebe go 
in for open sleeping-porches, and, with the bluebirds, are partial to 
good-sized roof-gardens where they can take frequent outings and air¬ 
ings. 

One thing is imperative, all houses to rent, if they have been occu¬ 
pied before, must be thoroughly cleaned and fumigated before offered 
to other tenants. The first families among the feathered folk prefer 
old, gray, lichen-covered mansions, so it is best to erect the new imita¬ 
tions in winter so they can become weather stained. All houses should 
have the opening turned away from prevailing cold winds, and the posts 
or poles on which they rest should be sheathed with tin or galvanized 
iron to prevent cats from climbing up and wrecking the happy homes. 

It will give you a new interest in life to help shelter the little wan¬ 
derers that are being driven from their natural homes and destroyed 
by their enemies, and you wiil be doing a great service to human be¬ 
ings at the same time. 


PLANTS THAT PREY ON FELLOW PLANTS 

/^REEN PLANTS are so common we almost forget that there are 
many plants which have neither roots nor green foliage. Such 
plants are unable to collect raw materials from the soil and air and 
make them over into food that will build up the plant. They must have 
it made for them, or they die. So they are dependent on animals or 
other plants for their food. 

One class, known as saprophytes, are dependent on decaying veg¬ 
etable and animal matter for a living. The mushroom is an example. It 
lives on decaying matter in the soil. Bacteria that attack the dead 
bodies of plants and animals causing them to decay, furnishes another 
example. 



PLANTS THAT PREY ON FELLOW PLANTS 


69 


Another class known as parasites are dependent on living plants 
for their sustenance. The fungi that attack leaves and shoots of plants, 

giving them a red, brown, or black 
color, belong to this class. The threads 
of these parasitic fungi usually creep 
through the spaces between the cells 
of a leaf or stem and send suckers, or 
haustoria, into the cells, whence they 
obtain nourishment. They do much 
damage to the cereal crops and to 
fruit-trees. 

These tiny plants, known as rusts 
and mildews, are by no means the 
only plants that prey on other mem¬ 
bers of the vegetable kingdom. The 
dodder is just as truly a parasite as 
the rusts, yet it hears flowers and pro¬ 
duces seeds. The clover-dodder is 
perhaps the most troublesome species 
of this group. It lives on clover and 
alfalfa and does great damage to these 
crops. Its leafless stem is red or yel¬ 
low in color. In midsummer dense 
clusters of small white flowers appear, 
and from each flower develop four 
dull-gray, roundish or oval seeds. The 
seeds germinate in the ground, but the 
stems soon seek to attach themselves 
to a plant by sending out rootlets, or 
haustoria, and the original roots die. The vine entwines itself more 
and more closely around the clover and soon “squeezes” it to death. 
Beginning in small spots here and there over a field, it spreads in every 
direction and, if allowed to go unchecked, leaves the field hare, as if it 
had been burned. 

This plant has been introduced into America from Europe with the 
importation of clover-seed, and has become a serious pest in some sec¬ 
tions of the United States. 

Another dependent flowering plant is the broom-rape. There are 









• 70 


THINGS IN NATURE 


many species in the United States, and all are whitish, yellowish, or 
purplish in color. Like the dodder, they produce flowers and seeds, but 
they draw sustenance from the roots of plants instead of from the 
stems. They are true root parasites, and as soon as the minute seeds 
germinate, the young plant becomes closely fixed to the roots of the 
plant it attacks. 

Most kinds of broom-rape are more or less restricted as to the 
sort of plant upon which they can grow, though some species live on a 
variety of plants. It is a very singular fact that the seed of this para¬ 
site will not germinate unless it be near the roots of a host-plant. For 
example, a seed of hemp broom-rape will lie in the ground for years 
unless the roots of the hemp or some other suitable plant comes within 
its reach. Experiments have proved that the seeds retain their vitality 
more than twelve years when lying in the soil. 

The parasite plants are especially interesting because of their 
peculiar construction and habits, but they are more destructive to crops 
than common weeds. 


HOW THE FLOWER BABIES EAT 

D O YOU KNOW that the little flower people need to eat just as well 
as boys and girls do? To live and grow they must have meals, 
even though they may not call them breakfast, dinner, and supper, or 
prepare them in the manner that we do. 

It is the duty of the root to go to market for the flower household. 
As it happens, the market is not far away, being the soil about it. The 
root sends out little rootlets, and they collect the water containing the 
special minerals which the plant requires. The stem receives from the 
roots this crude soup, which is usually colorless, and carries it up to the 
leaves, where it passes through veins leading in all directions, until it 
reaches all the tiny cell workshops which make up the leaf. 

These wee cells could never be seen with the naked eye, but they 
are there, nevertheless, more than you can ever count, and they are 
like so many tiny kitchens in which, with the sun for a fire, the thin 
soup is stirred and thickened until it becomes the starchy mass that 
the plant needs for its family’s nourishment. When the starchy part is 



THE WHITE-OAK LEAVES 


71 


just right tlie extra water is poured off in the air by the process of 
transpiration, and breakfast, dinner, or supper, as the case may be, is 
ready for the flowers. They do not come to table, but the stem distrib¬ 
utes to each member of the household its share, and never makes a mis¬ 
take. The roots, which begin the work first, are the last to be fed; and 
when all have had enough, it is the duty of the roots to put away all the 
food that is left and keep it under their care. They have a store-house 
for the purpose, and when you eat beets, turnips, potatoes, and other 
like vegetables, you are eating not only the food but the storehouse as 
well of those plants. 

Many flowers also store food for their children, and the plants that 
do this bloom early in the spring. They have enough to eat ready at 
hand, and so do not need to wait until their roots grow big enough to 
gather food for them. Perhaps you have noticed that snowdrops, crocus, 
daffodil, and the other blossoms that open first in the spring grow from 
bulbs, and of course I need not tell you that the bulb is the storehouse 
in which the wise mother plant has put her baby’s first food. 

Some plants, like the cactus, houseleek, and others, have a curious 
habit of storing extra food within the inner cells of their leaves, leav¬ 
ing only the outer ones free for carrying on the work of cooking it. If 
you notice, the leaves of such plants are very thick and fleshy, and if 
you strip off the outer green covering, you will be sure to find a quan¬ 
tity of thick, starchy food packed away for future use. — Selected . 


THE WHITE-OAK LEAVES 

I T WAS a March day. A fierce wind was driving the falling snow. 

Nevertheless, the brown, dead leaves of the white-oak-tree near my 
window clung to the branches. While the surrounding trees are bare 
and have been since last fall, this white-oak has kept its leaves all 
through the winter. No matter how hard the wind may blow, these 
leaves will not fall until the warm spring days awaken the inner life 
of the tree and the sap courses through the branches. Then the leaves 
will fall, and without a strong wind to snatch them. 

Is not this a beautiful illustration of the ceasing of sin when in 
the soul the Christ-life has begun? 



72 


THINGS IN NATURE 


A SOUTHERN DAY 

All day long the mocking-bird 
The magnolia bough has stirred, 
Where the bride-white blossoms lean 
Through the glossy leaves of green. 

All the golden afternoon 
Blow the cotton flowers of June, 

And the dusky singers pass. 
Piccaninny lad and lass. 

Faint the wind from out the south 
Kisses now the rose’s mouth. 

And I saw the shadows twice 
Ripple o’er the fields of rice. 

In the grass the pointed snake 
Seems the only thing awake, 

And the orange-blossoms scent 
With the jasmine bloom is blent. 

Even silence seems to creep 
To the bayou gone to sleep, 

And the alligator lies 
Sightless to the earth and skies. 

When the west is rose and gold. 
Crimson colored, fold on fold, 
Leaning down to kiss the mouth 
Of the lovely, dreaming South. 

While above the still lagoon 
Swings the crescent of the moon. 

And one bird with plumage bright 
Sings its heart out to the night. 

— Selected. 


OUR TREES AND THEIR BEAUTY 

S UPPOSE YOU had lived for years among the treeless plains, sur¬ 
rounded by sagebrush and sand, never once catching a glimpse of 
a forest, and were then suddenly carried to a beautiful country of hills 
and valleys, dancing brooks and green, waving woodlands; can you 
imagine how you would appreciate the beauty of green forest aisles, 
with millions of sunbeams filtering down through rustling leaves, and 
the fragrance and coolness of the woods all about you? 

Since man was created, no two human beings have ever been exactly 



OUR TREES AND THEIR BEAUTY 


73 


alike. With only a half-dozen features, so many different expressions 
are seen, so many different combinations, that none of us has a counter¬ 
part in all the wide world. Just so it is with the flowers and trees. And 
because of the endless variety in form, branch, leaf and blossom, it is 
a constant delight to learn to know the trees and enter into their varying 
moods. Never think that all the play of light and shadow on the foliage 
overhead reveals the same expression on one tree as another; keep your 
eyes open, and you will find as much expression in them as in people. 

Look at the sturdy oak, the drooping willow, the graceful brookside 
alder, the beautiful, plumey elm, healthy, vigorous maple, widespread 
apple-tree, and richly luxuriant magnolia; how varying are their charac¬ 
ters, and how each individual tree differs from all the others even of its 
own kind! Some call out your lasting affection, as the old orchard-trees, 
the elms, and the spreading oaks; others, like the stiff, ungraceful pop¬ 
lars or dark balsam-firs, seem to have a distant air, as if repelling your 
attempts at friendliness; but whatever the variety of tree, it can not 
reach its best development without sturdy, vigorous health. 

We are beginning to realize the beauty and value of our woods and 
mountains, and to try to replant and preserve our forest-trees. It is a 
much shorter task to destroy a beautiful forest than to replant and re¬ 
produce it; yet it is possible to undo in a great measure the devastation 
that has been wrought throughout our great timber-lands. And one of 
the very best ways to save and care for our forests is to learn to love 
and appreciate our individual trees. For this reason, Arbor Day has 
been invented and legalized as a holiday; and on this day many new 
trees are planted. It is not a new custom; there is a pretty habit 
among the Germans, where each member of families living in rural dis¬ 
tricts, on a holiday falling forty days after Easter, goes out and plants 
a tree, with proper songs and festivities. The old Mexican Indians also 
plant trees on certain days of the year when there is a full moon, and 
name them after their children. The Aztecs used to plant a tree when¬ 
ever a child was born, giving it the child’s name. . . . 

When we learn to preserve our beautiful trees and replant those 
that have been destroyed, we are conferring a blessing on others as 
well as ourselves; for with the destruction of our forests, much of a 
country’s usefulness as well as beauty goes with them. Springs dry 
up, uplands are washed away, meadowfs become unproductive, brooks 
no longer go laughing on their way, but stretch in dismal expanses of 


74 


THINGS IN NATURE 


gravel and sand. Hills and mountains, shorn of their waving trees, be¬ 
come unsightly and unbeautiful. It is hard to realize the loss sustained 
by the destruction of our beautiful forests. 

Every tree is a friend, and should be loved and protected. Learn 
to see their beauty, find out their names, study their different habits, 
and a new charm and enjoyment will come daily to your life out of 
doors. When you have learned something of the real life of trees, and 
recognize them as living creatures, you will reverence them and protect 
them, you will find them a delightful study, and as you grow older, you 
will use your influence toward replanting and preserving our forests 
which have been laid waste, as well as caring for the trees that are now 
making our country beautiful and healthful. — Selected . 


AUTUMN DREAMS 

When the maples turn to crimson 
’Neath the fingers of the frost; 

When the garden and the meadows 
All their summer bloom have lost; 

When from off the lowland marshes 
Blue ethereal vapors rise. 

And a dreamy haze is floating 

Through the mellow, sunlit skies,— 

Then I know the year is dying. 

Soon the summer will be dead. 

I can trace it in the flying 
Of the black crows overhead; 

I can hear it in the rustle 

Of the dead leaves as I pass. 

And the south wind’s plaintive sighing 
Through the dry and withered grass. 

Ah, ’tis then I love to wander, 

Wander idly and alone, 

Listening to the solemn music 
Of sweet nature’s undertone; 

Wrapt in thoughts I can not utter. 
Dreams my tongue can not express. 

Dreams that match the autumn’s sadness 
In their longing tenderness. 



HOW TREES LIVE AND DIE 


75 


Thoughts of friends my heart has cherished 
In the summer days gone by; 

Hopes that all too soon have perished 
E’en as summer blossoms die; 

Luckless plans and vain ambitions. 
Stranded, long ere summer’s prime, 
Buried, as will be the flowers, 

’Neath the winter snows of time. 

Yet, although my thoughts are sadder 
Than in summer’s wealth of bloom, 

’Tis a sadness that .makes better. 

And is not akin to gloom. 

All, the human heart seems purer, 

Much of earth’s defilement lost, 

When the maple turns to crimson 
’Neath the fingers of the frost. 

-—Mortimer Crane Brown. 


HOW TREES LIVE AND DIE 

T REES LITERALLY breathe, inhaling oxygen and exhaling car¬ 
bonic acid gas. The leaves are the lungs of the tree. On the lower 
surface of the leaf are vast multitudes of minute mouths or openings 
(100,000 to the square inch, it is estimated) which admit the air and 
expel the carbon. 

There are other openings, called lenticels, in the bark, dots and 
lines which can be easily seen on the twigs and smooth branches, which 
help the leaves just as the pores of the skin help the lungs. The perspi¬ 
ration of plants is technically known as transpiration. 

The exhalation of water from the leaves is very great. That from 
a large oak is estimated at 150 gallons a day during the summer. The 
evaporation of water from the forests is fully as important as that from 
the ocean, if not more so. The ocean alone could not produce rain 
enough to sustain vegetation. 

The roots also are active in taking oxygen from the air, which is 
always active in porous soil. A tree may be smothered by piling earth 
on its roots or hardening the soil around them, and may be drowned by 
keeping its roots water soaked. Coal-gas will choke it. 

The tip ends of the tree-roots absorb moisture from the ground, 



76 


THINGS IN NATURE 


even in zero weather, but the passage of water from' the roots up the 
trunk is retarded until winter relaxes its hold. The largest roots anchor 
the tree to the soil and do but little else. The slender rootlets and the 
tips of the large roots collect all that part of the tree ’s food which comes 
from the ground. 

Trees eat and drink through the leaves and the rootlets. While 
they breathe all the time, day and night, rain or shine, as steadily as we 


The fall of the year 



do, they feed only part of the time. They sleep in the night, during 
rainy weather, and throughout the winter. The growing season is very 
short, ending by midsummer. The summer droughts cut off or diminish 
the supply of water. The leaves are battered and eaten by insects. 

A long period of rest is essential that twigs may harden and the 
wood ripen. Careful preparation for winter takes the place of further 
thickening of the trunk or lengthening of the limbs. The twigs and 
stems and roots must be stocked with food. The tree strives to take in 
all the nutritious parts of each leaf before it casts it off. When winter 











HOW TREES LIVE AND DIE 


77 


comes it generally finds tlie tree ready. The lenticels are sealed during 
the winter to prevent the breathing away of the tree's moisture. 

Each leaf is a laboratory, where minerals and gases, water and sun¬ 
shine, are made into nourishment for the living tissue, from which 
comes wood, cork, flower, fruit, and a large number of gums, oils, es¬ 
sences, and perfume which have become indispensable in art, manu¬ 
facture, and medicine. 

The leaves take charge of the nourishment of the tree as soon as 
they open. They prepare food only in the daytime and in the presence 
of the sunlight; the more warmth, the more work. They make a com¬ 
plex substance known as starch, containing carbon, oxygen, and hydro¬ 
gen. The tree finds its growing season inaugurated when it is supplied 
with foliage. Each leaf is a builder. A large sugar-maple is estimated 
to have 432,000 leaves, presenting to the sunlight an area of half an 
acre. 

The closing of the leaflets at night reduces evaporation, which is a 
cooling process and enables the tree to save much of its heat. The cause 
of the brilliant foliage in the autumn is the chemical decomposition of 
the useless mineral substance in the leaves when the living substance 
is withdrawn. No two of the untold millions of leaves in the forest are 
exactly alike. 

The wood of the tree is not alive, neither is the bark. But between 
the bark and the wood is a peculiar cellular substance known as cam¬ 
bium, which is the living part of the tree, from which new tissues are 
developed. This ministry, by the leaves, is what lengthens the branches 
and roots and adds to the tree's diameter. The upward mounting of 
the sap remains one of the unexplored mysteries of plant-life. If a tree 
is girdled, it usually dies because the descending sap can not reach the 
roots, which soon perish of starvation from lack of the food sent them 
by the leaves. 

A tree does not die of old age. It accumulates infirmities with the 
years and has many diseases. It may starve or die of thirst; caterpil¬ 
lars may eat its foliage, scale-bugs suck its juices, beetles tunnel under 
the bark, scrap, rust, molds, rot, blight, may prey upon it. The wind 
is also an enemy. Peeling the bark of the birch does not kill it. The 
lumbering season is over when the sap begins to stream upward, as 
wood cut “in the sap" is liable to decay. A sugar-maple in three weeks 
yields of its life-blood to the extent of twenty-five gallons (seventy 


78 


THINGS IN NATURE 


drops falling every minute), which boils down to a little less than five 
pounds of sugar. The trees are not injured if properly treated and not 
exhausted by being bored too much or at the wrong time. 

—The Christian Intelligencer. 


AN AGED CHERRY-TREE 


H ALF A CENTURY ago farmers began settling along Hood’s 
Canal, an arm of Puget Sound, in Washington. 

The water that at one time covered these valleys left a fine sedi¬ 
ment, which has enriched the land for cultivation and has also caused 
it to produce great forests and heavy, dense undergrowth.' 

The first settlers came in small boats, scattered along the rivers, 



A very old cherry-tree 


and began to establish homes. Many hardships met these sturdy fron¬ 
tiersmen, because of the difficulty in clearing the land of such heavy 
timber, but some succeeded. Comfortable homes surrounded by a few 
acres of cleared, cultivated land marked years of effort. 

One man settled back four miles from the landing and began his 
home. Among other improvements, he set out an orchard. Today 








HOW FRUITS ARE FORMED 


79 


some of these trees still stand, reminders of early days. One tree of 
especial interest is a cherry-tree supposed to be the largest in the world. 

From the picture you see it branches not far from the ground; at 
this part the circumference of the trunk is fourteen feet. From the 
outer tip of one branch to the outer tip of the one on the opposite side 
of the crown is a distance of eighty-six feet. 

More wonderful still is the fact that in season this aged tree con¬ 
tinues to hear fruit. 

We, like this tree, may not only grow to maturity, hut by an up¬ 
right life present to the world a strong, healthy character, and bear 
fruit in old age. —Frances B. Tallen. 


HOW FRUITS ARE FORMED 


^^\X7 HAT IS a tomato V 9 asked one of a crowd of young people at 
* * the supper-table one evening. “Is it a fruit, or a vegetable ?” 

Some said one thing, and some another. Suddenly one of the girls 
spoke up and said, “It is a fruit, of course, and it is a berry.” At this 
the others broke forth in laughter, wondering whether she really did 
mean to say that she thought the tomato to be a berry. 

It is true that in ordinary talk we usually make a distinction be¬ 
tween fruit and vegetables, hut most people could hardly tell what the 
difference is. However, though an apple or a raspberry is just as much 
a vegetable (since it belongs to the vegetable kingdom) as a cabbage, 
potato, or turnip, yet we can find a distinction between them. In fact, 
people who study plants use the term “fruit” in a definite way. To 
them the fruit of a plant means that part of the plant which contains the 
seeds—that part which is formed as a result of the flower. Thus, some 
of the things we usually call vegetables, such as the tomato, cucumber, 
and squash, are fruits in the proper sense of the word, because they bear 
the seed. 

There are many different kinds of fruits, and the different ways 
in which they are formed afford a very interesting study. But before 
we can understand this we must go back to the flower and see how it is 
formed. The ovary, or part of the pistil in which the seeds are home, 
is joined to, or imbedded in, the torus, which is the upper end of the 
flower-stalk. When the seeds have developed and the ovary is ripe, it 



80 


THINGS IN NATURE 


is called a pericarp. The fruit may be simply a pericarp—that is, 
merely the ripened seeds and walls of the ovary; for example, the pod 
of the bean, pea, and catalpa. Or it may consist of the pericarp and 
some other part or parts of the flower that have grown fast to it, as is 
the case with the fruit of corn, walnut, and hickory. Since the burr 
of the chestnut, hazelnut, and beechnut, does not grow fast to the peri¬ 
carp, or nut, it can hardly be called a part of the 
fruit. 

As the fruit of some plants develops, the walls 
surrounding the seeds become fleshy, as in the 
grape, currant, gooseberry, -tomato, plum, peach, 
and cherry. When such fruits contain several or 
many seeds they are known to the plant-student as 
berries. So you see the botanist’s idea of a berry 
is different from the gardener’s. The latter con¬ 
siders as a berry any small, soft, edible fruit, re¬ 
gardless of its structure; for example, the straw¬ 
berry, raspberry, blackberry, none of which have 
the structure of the true berry. 

When the fruit consists of a fleshy pericarp 
containing only one seed, as the peach, plumb, apri¬ 
cot, it is called a drupe or stone-fruit. 

There is another class of fruits some of which might be mistaken 
for berries. In this class instead of the walls of the ovary becoming 
fleshy, the torus surrounds it and forms the pulpy part of the fruit. The 
fruit of the apple, pear, and quince are examples. The pistils of the 
flower are represented by the core, being completely embodied in the 
torus. The fruit of the pumpkin, squash, melon, and cucumber are some¬ 
what similar to these fruits in structure, as the outer wall is fleshy torus, 
or the end of the flowler-stalk. 

The strawberry is an enlarged torus, which, instead of surround¬ 
ing the seeds, has them embedded in its outer surface. 

The raspberry and blackberry are called aggregate fruits because 
each one of them is formed of many little drupes—stone-fruits-- similar 
in structure to the cherry and plum. —A. Grace Graham . 



Hazelnut branch, with 
fruit 






FORMATION OF A SEED 


81 


FORMATION OF A SEED 

nr HE PRODUCTION of seeds is the most important work of a plant, 
A and many plants die after they have once ripened their seeds. They 
live only one season, and therefore they are called annuals. 

Other plants, as beets and turnips, do not bloom the first year, hut 
store up food in a large, fleshy root, which sustains the plant during the 
early period of growth the second season. During the second year they 
put forth their flowers, ripen their seeds, and, having accomplished their 
life-work, they die. Such plants are called biennials, because they come 
up every two years instead of every year as annuals do. 

Plants that live more than two years, as trees, shrubs, and smaller 
plants whose stems die down each year but whose roots live on and on, 
are called perennials. 

As we look at the flowers of any one of these different kinds of 
plants, we realize that these are the result of the plant’s effort to pre¬ 
vent its race from dying out. But these questions arise in our minds, 
How do flowers produce seeds? What are the most important parts of 
the flower, anyway ? and in what way do those parts develop into the tiny 
plant called a seed? 

The bright, showy corolla may be beautiful to look upon, but it can 
never produce a seed. The less attractive pistils and stamens are the 
parts through which this work is accomplished. If you will examine a 
flower, pulling away the other parts from around the pistil, you will 
see that the base of the pistil is a rounded, green knob, known as the 
ovary. Split this open carefully and you will see little white specks, or 
ovules. These little ovules will grow into seeds; but something must 
happen first. 

The anthers, or the little knobs on the stamens, are filled with a 
yellow dust which is called pollen. The anthers open, and a tiny grain 
of this pollen falls upon the stigma and begins to grow. It sends a little 
tube down the stile, which joins the stigma to the ovary, and through this 
tube a part of the pollen-grain passes and unites with one of the tiny 
ovules in the ovary. Then the ovule begins to grow and finally develops 
into a seed. Other pollen-grains fall upon that same stigma and unite 
with others of the ovules in that pistil; and when the fruit is ripened, 
we find a number of seeds in it. 

Many flowers do not have corollas, and are so modest and incon- 


82 


THINGS IN NATURE 


spicuous we hardly notice them: for example, the flowers of many kinds 
of trees. Others are very small and grow so close together that we think 



J ack-in-the-p jlpit 


of the whole bunch as one flower. The dandelion is a good example of 
these. In some plants the very simple flowers are borne in dense, more 
or less fleshy spikes, and the spike is enclosed in a- large corolla-like 
leaf, known as a spathe. The jack-in-the-pulpit is a good illustration of 
this kind of plant. The flowers are borne on the spike near the base 
of the “pulpit,” and the ripened seeds are attached to the outside of the 
spike bearing the flowers. —N. Grace Graham. 


THE EVER-RESTLESS BUT NEVER-CHANGING SEA 

HERE ARE FEW sights more beautiful than the seacoast on a 



* warm summer day, or in the tropics where it is always warm. How 
delightful to sit and watch the merry waves sparkle in the sunshine and 
chase one another to the shore! They leap and foam, seeming never 
to tire. There is great pleasure in sitting on some rocky cliff and watch¬ 
ing an incoming vessel. There you can smell the sea air and hear the 
continual murmur of the waves and the lonely cry of the sea-birds. 

At morning when the sun breaks, it throws a beaming light upon 




83 



THE EVER-REiSTLESS BUT NEVER CHANGING SEA 

the water, making it appear golden; at midday, when the sun has reached 
its zenith, the water appears a deep blue; and in the evening, when the 
moon stalks the western sky there seems to be a sheet of silver spread 
over the broad expanse of water. 

There is a particular characteristic about the sea which might be 


“How we wonder at the magnitude and the magnificence of the sea!” 

called energy—somewhat restless, yet continuously moving without 
fatigue. How grand, indeed, is the briny deep! 

* In the thousands of years now gone, the sea, no doubt, looked as it 
does today; as also it will look as .the ages in the future come and go. 
There have been vast changes on the land. The mountains, the hills, the 
valleys, the rivers, animals, plants, and seemingly all things in nature 
are continuously changing, but the sea always appears the same. 

Many are satisfied to sit on the coast and admire the grandeur of 




84 


THINGS IN NATURE 


the sea; others prefer a voyage; many appreciate both. Although I 
have never been in a storm at sea, I have heard that it is unimaginable 
—one of the grandest manifestations of nature. 

The sea teemis with life, both animal and plant, but most abun¬ 
dantly near the coast. The conditions of life in the ocean depths are 
peculiar. The upper layers are more thickly inhabited; for, it is said, 
the sun can not penetrate beyond about two hundred fathoms; deeper 
than this it is very dark. In some of the deep-sea creatures, the eyes 
dwindle and sometimes completely disappear, while in others they be¬ 
come unusually large. 

Wherever a firm hold can be obtained along the seashore, there will 
be found seaweeds. Some of the seaweeds are an olive-green, and some 
are red. Seaweeds do not live beyond a depth of about fifteen fathoms. 

When we were passing through the gulf streams, we could look 
down from the vessel into the water and see large patches of green sea¬ 
weed floating about. They formed a beautiful sight. One day when the 
steamer lay at anchor, we were interested, on looking down into the 
water, to see the abundance of almost transparent jelly-fish. 

Some parts of the ocean have greater depths than other parts. In 
crossing the Atlantic, we were told one morning that during the night 
we had crossed the deepest place of the ocean that came in the course 
our steamer was traveling. We were told it was five miles deep. How 
we wonder at the magnitude and the magnificence of the sea! 


‘The earth lies quiet like a child asleep; 

The deep heart of heaven is calm and still; 
Must thou alone a restless vigil keep 
And with thy sobbing all the silence fill?” 


—Opal F . Brookover, 


SNOQUALMIE FALLS 



HE BEAUTIFUL falls you see in the picture are in the Cascade 


Mountains in the State of Washington. 

During the winter heavy snows fall. In the spring the warm rays 
of the sun melt the snow on the lower mountains and cause little stream¬ 
lets to ripple down the mountain crags. At the foot of the mountain 



SNOQUALMIE FALLS 


85 


many of these streamlets meet and form a large creek. As this creek 
flows along it is joined by others until ere long it becomes a river. In 

this way the river 
we see in the pic¬ 
ture was formed. 
The name of this 
river is Snoqualmie. 

Have you ever 
seen a mountain 
river! Mountain 
rivers a r e quite 
different from the 
placid streams of 
level countries. 
The river-beds are 
composed of rocks 
and many small 
bright-colored peb¬ 
bles. The water is 
clear as crystal and 
very cold. The sun 
shining on the river 
makes the water 
sparkle. Then, too, 
(in a n y mountain 
trout can be seen 
darting here and 
there. The rivers 
are always very 
swift, and the wat¬ 
ers make a rum¬ 
bling noise, easily 
heard at quite a 
distance. This noise is made by the water flowing over so many rocks. 

The rivers formed in the mountains make their course downward 
toward the sea. To reach the lowlands they must sometimes fall over 
very high cliffs. This is what makes the beautiful falls we see in the 
picture. The falls also are called Snoqualmie. As the water falls and 





86 


THINGS IN NATURE 


strikes the rocks below, it makes a spray that causes the atmosphere to 
be very misty. 

Do you wonder what good these falls are ? Let me tell you. About 
twenty-eight miles west there is a very large city, and these falls give 
the power to light the city with electricity. There is also a large mine 
near that is run by power from these falls. 

A railroad runs within a short distance, and during the summer 
months many large excursion-trains take hundreds of people from the 
warm- dusty cities to spend a day by the cool, refreshing waters of these 
falls. Much enjoyment is found in rowing on the river below or in 
climbing the rocky cliffs round about. 

The trees you see are pine and fir. In the distance are some beau¬ 
tiful snow-capped mountains. They are not clearly shown in the pic¬ 
ture. The snow does not melt on these the year round. 

Is it not wonderful how God has planned for man’s help and en¬ 
joyment? As we stand, and gaze at the foaming waters as they tumble 
over the cliffs, or as we look at any other piece of God’s handiwork, 
our souls are filled with awe. Though man may make pieces of artificial 
work that we admire, yet his work can not compare with the w'ondrous 
beauties of God’s creation. 

Have you ever thought of the way nature praises God? Year after 
year the leaves return to the trees, the flowers bloom in the wild woods, 
the merry birds seem never to tire of their songs, even the waters con¬ 
tinue to flow on and on. Nature praises God by doing as God intended 
she should. Let us praise God by living as he intended we should. 

—Frames B. Talien. 


SEEING BEAUTY IN LEAFLESS TREES 

I N SPRING, when the trees are laden with pretty and fragrant blos¬ 
soms, we say , 4 4 How beautiful are the trees! ’ ’ And we enjoy looking 
at them and gathering the lovely blossoms. In summer, when they are 
covered with a canopy of green, we say, “Howl refreshing are the 
trees! ’ ’ And how eagerly their cool shadows are sought by both man 
and beast when the sun sends its hot rays upon the earth! In autumn, 
when the fruit of the trees has matured, we say, “How good the trees 
are P* And we joyfully gather the fruit and nuts, from which we derive 



SEEING BEAUTY IN LEAFLESS TREES 


87 



both pleasure and food. But when the bleak winds of winter come, and 
the trees stand naked and dark against a cold, gray sky, we say, “How 
dreary the trees look! ’ And a majority of us see nothing admirable in 

them. 

\ et after all, winter is a good time to study trees. Their form, 
bark, and color can be seen better than when they are covered with 


Trees in winter 

leaves. The size, shape, and color of their buds are also interesting 
Doubtless most of you can identify the more common trees by their 
leaves, and it is certain that we can all know a tree by its fruits. But 
what a pleasure it is to be able to name the different trees when there 
are neither leaves nor fruits to assist us! 

Let us take an imaginary walk of a few miles into the country. 
That line of white on the edge of the woods proclaims the presence of 
the white birch, in winter one of our most beautiful trees. Yonder is 
a tall black tree holding its broad head so high that it seems to be try¬ 
ing to look over the heads of its friends and see the world. It has 



88 


THINGS IN NATURE 


spread its branches wide too; as we approach it we notice that its bark 
is very rough and dark. Yes, it is a black walnut. 

What is this beautiful little tree? Its smooth, green trunk has 
white perpendicular stripes here and there, and its smooth stems and 
buds are a rich rose color. It is the striped, or moosewood maple. 

How different is its cousin, the big sugar maple! Its buds are 
brown and sharply pointed, and its trunk is covered with rough furrows, 
between which are smooth fissures. 

Here is a tree whose bark is peeling off in thin, square patches, 
and the covering of its large, round buds is green. It is another mem¬ 
ber of the maple family, the sycamore maple. 

As we walk on, we notice another large tree something like those 
we just passed. It is tall, has closely-fissured bark, and large, round, 
reddish-brown buds. It is the Norway maple. Let us see what is in¬ 
side of one of its buds. We cut a bud open, after removing the outer 
scales. We discover “a pair of scales covered with soft brown hair 
. . . Within this warm covering there is still another pair of inner 
scales with fur a little darker and thicker than that of the first pair, and 
within these are the little leaves in embryo. In some buds one finds a 
tiny flower-cluster instead, so small it can scarcely be seen, but perfect 
in every detail.” 

We marvel at this, until we consider that God has given this tree 
a warm coat to protect itself in a cold climate. For it is a native of 
northern Europe. 

Here is a horse-chestnut. Let us open one of. its sticky, brown 
buds. What do we see? Two folded, undeveloped leaves, and between 
them an undeveloped spike of flowers. So the trees are not dead in 
winter. They are only resting and getting ready for summer. The 
buds, sleeping in their cozy beds, will awake at the call of the bluebird 
and the robin and gladden us with beautiful leaves and flowers. 

The winter days are short. Already the sun is low, so let us turn 
our steps homeward. We shall take another path, so that we may see 
some different trees. 

Ho you see that tail, broad, sturdy-looking tree standing alone on 
the hill? Yes, the one with dead leaves still clinging to it. Let us look 
at it more closely. The buds are five-sided, and when we cut off a twig 
we notice that the pith looks like a star. What could this rugged-looking 
tree be but an oak? 


THE (TREAT STONE FACE 


89 


Down by the road is an apple orchard. Notice how different from 
the oak and maple and walnut is the apple-tree. If it wtere not low, how 
difficult would be the task of picking apples! Its breadth makes us 
think of a broad-shouldered man accustomed to bearing burdens. And 
indeed it does bear heavy burdens—burdens of luscious fruit. 

By the long, slender pods that hang gracefully from the branches 
of the tree in our neighbor’s yard we know it to be the catalpa. Really, 
we had not noticed before how pretty it is. But we are beginning to see 
beauty in trees in the winter. 

The sun is sinking, lighting the western horizon with a crimson 
glow; and how beautiful the trees are when outlined against such a 
sky! Shall we now say that trees are dreary-looking just because their 
leaves have fallen? —Gertrude M. Henricks. 


THE GREAT STONE FACE 


HE GREAT stone face of which Hawthorne wrote is not merely 



1 an invention for the basis of a pleasing tale, but is an actual fact. 
Any one traveling through the White Mountains on the road between 
Franconia and Woodstock, N. H., when passing Profile Lake, need but 
walk down a few steps from the road to the edge of the lake and look 
up. There, in bold relief, he will behold the “Old Man of the Moun¬ 
tain,” the most wonderful natural profile known. 

The great stone face juts out from the side of Profile Mountain 
(formerly called Mt. Cannon) about 1,200 feet above the Lake. It is 
composed of five large, granite ledges lying one above the other. One 
stone forms the chin, another forms the upper lip, a third forms the 
nose, and- two form the forehead. From the top of the forehead to the 
bottom of the chin measures 40 feet. It can be seen to good advantage 
only from a limited area. A dozen steps to the right or to the left from 
this space the profile appears less distinct. 

The oft-arising question, “Who first discovered the 'Old Man’ ”t 
can never be answered. It vias probably some Indian, but of this we have 
no record. The first white man known to have seen it was Nathaniel 
Hall. In 1805 he, with other workmen, was engaged in cutting out a 



90 


THINGS IN NATURE 



road between Woodstock and Franconia. One evening they pitched 
their tent at the side of a little lake that lay at the foot of one of the 
mountains. The next morning Nathaniel Hall, going out early in search 
.of partridges for breakfast, chanced to look up and, as he did so, was 

held spellbound for a moment by the 
marvelous face before him. Entirely 
forgetting about the partridges, he hast¬ 
ened back to the camp to tell his com¬ 
rades to “come and see./’ 

Since then the “Old Man” has had 
thousands of visitors. Each year tour¬ 
ists from far-distant regions come to 
satisfy their desire to see this’much- 
talked-of wonder. But few are disap¬ 
pointed; the vast majority agree that 
it is even much better than they were 
told. The large hotel and rows of pri¬ 
vate cottages testify to the popularity of 
the profile and the beautiful surround¬ 
ing mountains and lakes. 

Of the many that have admired it, 
few have realized the danger that for 
years has threatened it. The upper of 
the two forehead stones has been grad¬ 
ually slipping forward, preparatory to 
crashing down into the valley 1,200 feet 
below, which would forever ruin the 
profile. When examined in August, 
1916, the rock had but four inches more 
to go before thus overbalancing. This 
calamity has, however, been prevented 
“old Man of the Mountains” through the efforts of Rev. Guy Ro¬ 
berts. At the expense of the State of 
New Hampshire, the slipping stone has been securely fastened by means 
of three anchor irons. It was a tremendous undertaking, requiring 
skill, fortitude, and endurance on the part of the workmen; but who 
would say it was not worth while 1 

And now the “Old Man” will continue to gaze undisturbed through 






IRISH SCENERY 


91 


the coming years as though listening for that trumpet that shall sound 
the passing away of time. 

“Is he waiting for the dawning 
Of the Grand Eternal Day? 

Is he watching for the morning 
When these hills shall pass away?” 

—Paula M. Kohn. 


IRISH SCENERY 

* | 'HERE IS MUCH that is romantic and attractive in Irish scenery. 

A variation of interesting objects keeps the interest from waning. 
Wherever we go on the island, we are surrounded by relics of a former 
age which are evidence of greater prosperity and activity. 

The ‘ 4 raths, ’ ’ or earth mounds, that cap the summits of all the im¬ 
portant hills take us back to a primitive age, far in the hoary past, 
when men had to defend themselves against their enemies and build 
these raths, or forts, as places of refuge and defense when the invad¬ 
ing host swept the land. 

The graceful round towers rising from the peaceful vales; the 
Christian crosses of rare and exquisite workmanship; the ancient mon¬ 
asteries and abbies, where early Christianity flourished—all these tell 
us of an age of better things. Venerable castles, rising from the green 
islands that stud the many lakes, speak of a former age of activity and 
power. 

As we wander about the ruins of one of these castles and stand in 
the opening that marks the place where once the beautiful door stood, 
a brooding.sense of antiquity steals over us. We know we are standing 
on the ground where, perhaps more than a thousand years ago, a proud 
chief of the Irish race stood and surveyed his surrounding country peo¬ 
pled with his clansmen, all ready to grip the sword at his bidding and 
defend his castle to-the last. 

“That chieftain of old, 

Could he now behold 
His lordly tower a shepherd’s pen, 

His corse, long dead, from its narrow bed 
With anger and shame would rise again.” 



92 


THINGS IN NATURE 


Yes, these ruined castles were once gay with life, but nothing re¬ 
mains of it now. Sheep and goats take shelter where once the proud 
lords and ladies reposed. They have long found a deeper repose be¬ 
neath the emerald green that decks the little graveyard on the hillside. 
Their ruined castles, still standing, serve as an illustration of the vanity 



Natural rock formation in northern Ireland 


of raising huge mansions here below, for we can not long enjoy them. 

Amongst the natural objects of Irish scenery, none excite the inter¬ 
est of the traveler more than the Giant’s Causeway. This remarkable 
natural structure gets its name from a legend which says that it was the 
commencement of a road some giants in olden times thought of building 
to Scotland across the sea. It is a sort of natural pier, or mole, of col¬ 
umnar basalt, projecting from the northern coast of County Antrim. 
It is not the only basaltic rock in the vicinity, hut is part of a great bed 
of basalt that covers all Antrim and part of Londonderry. There are 
said to be forty thousand columns of basalt in the Giant’s Causeway. 

These columns follow no regular pattern in regard to shape. Most 
of them are six-sided, though many examples may be found of five, 
seven, eight, and nine sides. There is a single instance of one column 









WONDERFUL NIAGARA 


93 


which is three-sided, a triangular prism. These columns are divided 
into upright sections of unequal length, and their diameters measure 
from fifteen to twenty inches. These joints are not loose, hut as one 
section-end is concave, while the adjoining section-end is convex, they 
fit into each other wlith great stability. The work is compact, and, when 
struck with a hammer, gives forth a somewhat sonorous sound. 

—James Turner . 


WONDERFUL NIAGARA 

ALL THE GRAND and thrilling natural wonders with which 
our favored land is endowed none is comparable to Niagara. One 
is not likely to forget the first time his eyes behold the mighty cataract. 
The measure of desire at once seems filled up and satisfied. Whether 
one watches the agitated waters of the rapids lashing themselves into 
spray, or the great falls themselves, the sense of wanting to be “ close 
to nature ” meets -its gratification, and one does not easily tire of the 
sublime spectacle. 

What must have been Father Hennepin’s feeling and what excla¬ 
mations of wonder must have escaped his lips when, as the discoverer 
of this great waterfall in 1678, he realized that he was the first civilized 
man to behold it! How he must have longed to tell others of it! Its be¬ 
wildering grandeur must be taken as an excuse for his exaggerated 
statement that the falls were 500 feet high. The fact of the mighty river 
leaping over a perpendicular precipice 160 feet high is sufficient, and 
exaggerations are unnecessary. 

As a Mecca, of pilgrims from our own and other lands, Niagara 
is visited by a million persons a year. Since 1885, when the islands and 
the land on both sides of the falls wlere converted into public parks, 
sightseeing has been protected from imposition and is free. One may, 
of course, hire conveyances if he chooses. 

Goat Island, wlpch divides Niagara into what are called the Ameri¬ 
can Fall and the Horseshoe, or Canadian Fall, is connected with the 
mainland and the smaller islands by artistic bridges, and there are 
beautiful shaded walks and viewpoints, from which the scenes may be 
beheld to the best advantage. 

Luna Island lies close to Goat Island and forms a small segment of 



94 


THINGS IN NATURE 


the cataract, called Luna Fall. Behind Luna Fall, at the base, is the 
famous Cave of the Winds, into which visitors may enter. On the 
American shore an elevator descends 160 feet through the rock, con¬ 
necting with the short tunnel leading to the base of the American Fall, 
affording a view from below, perhaps the, most sublime sight of all. 
Here is the landing place of the Miaid of the Mist, a small steamer that 



American and Luna Falls, looking down the river from Goat Island 


plies between this point and the base of the Horseshoe Fall, a short dis¬ 
tance up-stream. The latter fall is so enveloped with mist that it is 
often difficult to get a clear photograph of it. 

About nine tenths of the water passes over the Horseshoe Fall, 
whose width, measured by its contour, is 3010 feet. The width of the 
American Fall is 1080 feet. The total amount of water passing over 
the falls is estimated at 500,000 tons a minute. 

Through Niagara River the waters of Lakes Superior, Huron, 
Michigan, St. Clair, and Erie drain to Lake Ontario and the Atlantic 
Ocean. It is 33 miles in length: 23 miles above the falls and 10 bclow. 
The total fall between the levels of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario is 326 
feet, one half of which is the cataract, the other half varying and in 








AMONG THE ROCKIES 


95 


places forming swift rapids. The water is clear and pure. The rapids 
above the falls, and around Goat Island, where the water drops 52 feet 
in a short distance, form a beautiful prelude to the falls. The waters 
strike against rocks, splash into the air, lash themselves into foam, and 
seem verily enraged as if in horror of the awful leap they are doomed 
to take. 

Below the falls the course of the river is a narrow, deep gorge as 
far as Lewiston, a distance of seven miles. Through this the confined 
waters pour along at 30 miles an hour in a terrific tumult, making a 
spectacle that is almost equal to the falls themselves. About midway 
in this gorge the channel makes an abrupt turn to the left, and here the 
current has worn out a vast circular basin forming the celebrated Whirl¬ 
pool. The depth of the river in the gorge for some distance below the 
falls averages 180 feet, or a little more than the height of the falls them¬ 
selves. 

Above the falls a portion of the water in the river is diverted into 
canals and used for water-power. About 500,000 horse-power is thus 
developed. The electric cars in Buffalo, twenty-twlo miles distant, are 
run by the power generated at Niagara Falls. 

The falls are constantly receding by the wearing away of the rock 
underneath. The recession of the American Fall is only about three 
inches a year. The Horseshoe Fall recedes between four and five feet 
a year. It is no longer a horseshoe but has cut back into a sharp angle. 

Geologists assert that the falls were originally at Lewiston, and that 
for many thousands of years (some say 35,000) they have been wearing 
back to where they are at present. 

Niagara should be seen by all lovers of the sublime and the won¬ 
derful in nature. —A. L. Byers . 


AMONG THE ROCKIES 
The Garden of the Gods 

Y EARS AGO WHEN Indians inhabited the West, many of them 
found retreat in the beautiful, cragged Garden of the Gods, situated 
at the foot of Pike’s Peak, a few miles from Colorado Springs, Colo. 
This is not a garden of flowers, as one would suppose, but a veritable 



96 


THINGS IN NATURE 


garden of beautiful, colored rocks, massive in size and very peculiar in 
shape. 

The Indians, it is said, worshiped these great rocks and esteemed 
them as gods, and from this fact it derives its name. 

Just before approaching the gateway to this garden, one sees, on 
the right hand, a huge white rock of gypsum. From this, skilled work- 



The gateway into the garden 


men obtain material for souvenirs, which they sell to tourists. When 
these souvenirs are held toward the sun, they appear quite transparent. 

Forming the gatewlay, as you see in the picture, are two great red 
rocks, one towering 330 feet in the air, the other 285. On these rocks 
there are some peculiar formations. One very strange feature of the 
rock on the right hand is a figure at the top which closely resembles two 
camels kissing each other. The rocks are quite perpendicular, and it is 
almost impossible to climb them, but sometimes daring men do so for 
fame. 

A step through the gateway and into the garden, and what an en¬ 
trancing sight! One is made to exclaim, 1 ‘ No wonder the poor Indian 
in his ignorance worshiped here!” for what an inspiring scene! As 
thick as flowers in a garden here are curious formations of rock, nearly 



AMONG THE ROOKIES 


97 


all red in color but varying somewhat in shade, done by the hand of 
the great Sculptor. 

Just inside the gateway is a great rock resembling a mother with 
her infant in her arms. At first, it does not seem so clear, but as we 
study it, we hardly see why we could not at first see it that way. On 
another massive, red rock close by is a large carving that appears to 
form the head of a lion in a different color. This is a wonderful forma¬ 
tion, which no human hand could make, towering far above our heads. 
Near here is another great rock, and on it are two objects which resemble 
very much a seal climbing up the rock and a bear awaiting it at the top. 
In another place are two rocks which look like two men joined together. 

Not far from the entrance of the garden is a group of tall rocks, 
over 100 feet high, spire-shaped, which are called “Cathedral Spires.” 
Near them is a tall, needle-like column of very cragged rock standing 



The cathedral spires 


unsupported. Farther on is a rock perhaps 25 feet in height which is 
called the Scotchman. From a distance the Scotchman’s golf cap is 
very plainly seen. 

Steam-boat Rock is about in the center of the garden and is a great 
attraction to tourists. This rock is shaped much like a lake steamer, 




98 


THINGS IN NATURE 


and steps are arranged on the side of it so that visitors may ascend to 
the top and view the surrounding wonders. Railings are fixed all around 
the top, which makes it appear like the deck of a steamboat. At the top 
are telescopes and field glasses and with the aid of these one can see the 
summit of Pike’s Peak, over eight miles away, and many other interest¬ 
ing points many miles distant. 

Just opposite Steam-boat Rock is Balanced Rock, a large cup- 



Mushroom Park 


shaped rock which is said to have been self-balanced at one time, but now 
it is cemented to two pivots at the bottom. 

After leaving these we wander into Mushroom Park. Here are 
many rocks which resemble giant mushrooms. Here is a rock that 
resembles the ant-eater. There is another resembling a porcupine, an¬ 
other a seal, etc. Thus, the sights increase in interest and are ever 
changing. 

Near the exit is the home of the ancient Cliff Dwellers. These 








AMONG THE ROCKIES 


99 



caves are inhabited during the summer by the Pueblo Indians, who live 
there in the same manner as did the Cliff Dwellers of ages ago. One 
noted author spent 
years in this place 
writing books. The 
garden has offered 
m,uch inspiration to 
authors and those 
who love and ad¬ 
mire nature. 


Cave of the 
Winds 


The Cave of 
the Winds is sit¬ 
uated in the moun¬ 
tains several hun¬ 
dred feet a hove 
Manitou, Colo. 

The cave is 
reached by travers¬ 
ing the picturesque 
Williams Canyon 
for nearly two 
miles. A narrow 
but well - beaten 
road runs through 
this quiet, peaceful 
canyon. On either 
side tower great, 
beautiful limestone 
walls, differing in 
color and shape. 

Above them pine- 
trees and an abun- The roaaway up the mountain to the Cave of the Winds 

dance of shrubbery 

add to the grandeur of the scene. The road, is rather upgrade, and the 
last mile is quite steep, the narrow road winding and winding up the 





100 


THINGS IN NATURE 


side of the mountain. In many places it has been blasted out, and at 
these rather dangerous places heavy timber railings have been put. 
Here we could look over, down to the depths below, and see how high 
we had ascended. Many magnificent sights were seen while we were 
climbing—other beautiful mountains, cragged rocks of varied shapes 

and colors, fertile valleys, and God’s 
handiwork in forms too numerous to 
mention here. 

Soon we had turned the last bend 
in the road and reached the cave. 

It will be interesting to the boys 
who read this to know that this cave 
was discovered in 1880 by some boys 
who wtere rambling about in the 
mountains. 

It is said that the wind fairly 
whistled through the cave at that 
time, hence its name, but since then 
all drafts have been closed, so that 
now the temperature inside is the 
same summer and winter. 

There are many rare and won¬ 
derful things in the cave that are so 
entrancing one would enjoy spending 
a day there beholding the handiwork 
of God and meditating upon it, but 
the guide had others to show through, 
so we could not dwell long. 

The Cave of the Winds is not 
composed of one large, gloomy, damp hole in the earth as some might 
suppose, but it is a seeming palace, consisting of many large rooms, con¬ 
nected by narrow passage-ways all fitted up beautifully with electric 
lights, and in many places the rooms just glitter with pretty mineral 
formations. Some of the rooms are very large, while others are small; 
but each one is the work of nature, and all contain something wonder¬ 
fully beautiful. 

In one room is a great amount of this mineral formation growing 
upward, while just above it are several cone-shaped formations which 



Twin column 









WINTER CHARMS 


101 


resemble icicles constantly dripping down and hardening. These keep 
growing in this way toward each other till they meet. Yon may get a 
faint idea of their appearance from the picture. 

In another room, perhaps the most remarkable of all, are seen thou¬ 
sands of small crystal formations, some resembling flowers, coral, and 
such like. In another room the walls and ceiling are fairly covered 
with a beautiful calcimine or wall-paper of what appears to be diamond 
dust, for when the electric light is turned on it, the walls and ceiling 
glisten and sparkle as if set with small diamonds. In some places it 
resembles pure white fluted cocoanut. We were amazed at its being so 
pure and white in a cave under the earth in the side of a high mountain! 
These last two rooms we were loath to leave; for it seemed as if we wlere 
in some fairy-land too wonderful to be true. The beauties dazzled our 
eyes, and as we remember it, we are oft made to magnify our God and 
exclaim, ‘ ‘ O Lord, how great are thy works! ’’ 

We saw many more remarkable things, which resembled different 
objects, and as the colored lights were turned on them,, some were grand, 
while others reminded us of the sad scene the unfaithful will see some 
day. 

We were so absorbed in thought and in meditating upon the gran¬ 
deur of the cave that we seemed to reach the end of William’s Canyon 
again without beholding its beauty. 


WINTER’S CHARMS 


When the twilight steals upon us, 
Ending thus the wintry day; 
When the atmosphere is chilly 
And the sky is cold and gray, 
We retreat with willing footsteps 
Near the fire-glow on the hearth 
Where the family circle gathers— 
Dearest spot in all the earth. 

Soon the twilight shades grow deeper 
Till they darken into night. 

And we hear the north wind sobbing 
As if driven on in fright 


Through the treetops, round the corner. 
Till at last its mournful tone 
Slowly dies out in the distance 
And no more we hear it moan. 

Then, while we are lost in slumber. 
Silently does Nature toil, 

Robing earth in dazzling garments— 
Nothing does her efforts foil. 

Every tree and shrub and bower 
Must be clothed with special care 
In the clear and crystal raiment 
Which she wishes them to wear. 



102 


THINGS IN NATURE 



When this task she has completed, 
She retires with ease and grace 
To await the dawn of morning 
In her own appointed place. 

Not one twig has been neglected, 
Not one withered blade of grass, 
Each one now is well enclosed 
In its winter house of glass. 

Now the early dawn is breaking, 
Bidding darkness flee away; 

See, upon the clear horizon 

Shines the glowing orb of day; 


Night is past—behold the morning 
Bursting forth with glorious light! 
Could there be a scene whose beauty 
Would surpass this lovely sight? 

Springtime has her buds and blossoms, 
Summer boasts of roses fair. 
Autumn’s pride is golden harvests. 
But of these can none compare 
With the glowing charms of Winter 
When his crystal fields we view, 
Sparkling in the brilliant sunlight 
As the day breaks forth anew. 

—Elsie E. Egermeier. 





THE BEAUTIFUL ABALONE 


103 


THE BEAUTIFUL ABALONE 

HE LOVELY ABALONE! Do you know what it is and where it 
is found! It is a little sea-animal peculiar to the Pacific Coast. Its 
home is said to he the most beautiful possessed by any creature of that 
ocean. Perhaps you have the home of one of these little animals stand¬ 
ing in some nook of your own home. Other 
names for the abalone are the ear-shell and 
sea-ear. 

The shape of its home is much like a 
shallow, oval saucer with a row of holes in it. 

In color it may be “red, blue, green, black, 
and white. The finest of these is the blue, 
then the green. The black is noted for its 
pearl, which lies in the center of the shell like 
a blotch in the interior.” 

The little animal spreads itself like a 
fringed mantle over the shell and extends its 
tentacles through the row of holes in the 
shell. “It feeds upon seaweeds, and when 
quiet or alarmed withdraws all soft parts 
beneath the shield-like shell and sits down 
with great tenacity.” It is considered a 
valuable food by the Orientals, especially by 
the Chinese and Japanese. 

The best abalone hunting-ground in the 
world is near Monterey, Cal., and the Chi¬ 
nese and Japanese fishermen of that section, 
so anxious were they for this much-desired 
mollusk, gathered the abalones in such num¬ 
bers that the government had to interfere. 

To gather them, three or four men go 
out in a boat and take turns at diving for 
the catch. The abalone fastens itself securely to the under side of 
boulders by means of a suction apparatus much like that of a fly’s foot. 
So well does it do this that the men have to pry it oft the boulders with 
iron bars. Because of this, the abalones are usually gathered at low 
tide, When the men can get under the rocks or dive only a short distance 








104 


THINaS IN NATURE 


below the surface of the water to obtain them. Usually only a few can 
be brought up at a time. 

“Brought to land, the 4 meat’ is scooped out and the rest is then 
dried in the sun or put up as soup.” When dried, the abalone is about 
as thick as a small fist and of a “ queer grayish-brown color, resembling 
most a bunch of cloth, or a dried sponge tissue, minus the holes of the 
sponge.” Then they are put in barrels or sacks and sent to the Orient. 

The shells from the dry-yards and cannery are sent by the ton to 
curio-dealers, where they are made up into all manner of souvenirs, 
purses, waist-sets, watch-fobs, hatpins, etc. Should you chance to walk 
along the Pacific Coast, near Mjonterey, keep your eyes open for some 
of these shells. You need not be afraid the animal is in them, for live 
abalones are beneath the waters, perhaps far away. Only shells are to 
be found on the beach. 


THE VALLEY BROOK 

Fresh from the fountains of the wood 
A rivulet of the valley came. 

And glided on for many a rood, 

Flushed with the morning’s ruddy flame. 

The air was soft and fresh and sweet; 

The slopes in spring’s new verdure lay; 
And wet with dew-drops at my feet 
Bloomed the young violets of May. 

No sound of busy life was heard 
Amid those pastures lone and still. 

Save the faint chirp of early bird. 

Or bleat of flocks along the hill. 

I traced that rivulet’s winding way; 

New scenes of beauty opened round, 
Where meads of brighter verdure lay, 

And lovelier blossoms tinged the ground. 

“Ah, happy valley stream,” I said, 

“Calm glides thy wave amid the flowers. 
Whose fragrance round thy path is shed 
Through all the joyous summer hours. 



THE VALLEY BROOK 


105 


“Oh, could my years, like thine, be passed 
In some remote and silent glen. 

Where I could dwell and sleep at last. 

Far from the bustling haunts of men!” 

But what new echoes greet my ear? 

The village school-boy’s merry call; 

And mid the village hum I hear 
The murmur of the waterfall. 



I looked; the widening vale betrayed 
A pool that shone like burnished steel. 

Where that bright valley stream was stayed 
To turn the miller’s ponderous wheel. 

“Oh, why should I,” I thought with shame, 
“Sigh for a life of solitude. 

When even this stream without a name 
Is laboring for the common good? 

“No longer let me shun my part 
Amid the busy scenes of life, 

But with a warm and generous heart 
Press onward in the glorious strife.” 

—John Howard Bryant. 









106 


THINGS IN NATURE 


GOLDFISH 



HE GOLDFISH, of whatever variety, is a member of the carp 


^ family; in fact, it is called golden carp by some. It is a native of 
China, where it has long been common to the fresh waters. In color 
goldfish are varied: some resemble pure gold, then come the pure reds, 
and those of three or four different colors harmoniously blending into 
each other. The modern goldfish, with its bright, lustrous colors and 
wonderfully filmy tail, is either a Chinese or Japanese production, the 
result of centuries of hybridizing. These people have been very skilful 
in the breeding of these fish and have brought forth a large number of 
interesting varieties. 

Among the fancy varieties that the Chinese and Japanese breeders 
have originated are the fantails; the fringetails, whose tails are usually 
from three to four inches long and spread out like filmy lace on the 
water; the telescopes, whose eyes bulge from the head; the nymphs; 
the ram’s-nose; the lion’s-head; and the comet. The head of the lion’s- 
head variety is a very close diminutive reproduction of the head of a 
lion. The comet is a gorgeous fish, with a tail twice as long as its entire 
body and sweeping off into the most delicate lace with the richest colors. 

In recent years Americans have become very proficient in the breed¬ 
ing of goldfish, and many of the varieties have been improved and some 
new varieties have been originated in the United States. There are 
now several gold-fish “farms’’ in the United States, where from fifty 
to one hundred breeding-ponds, filled with fresh spring or well water, 
are maintained, and the annual output of marketable fish is several hun¬ 
dred thousand. 

An average-sized goldfish lays about five thousand eggs. These are 
adhesive and lodge on the aquatic plants, or, if these are lacking, on 
grass, twigs, and bushes which are thrown into the water. The eggs 
hatch in from five to eight days, according to the season and the warmth 
of the water. When they are about a week old, the tiny fish begin to 
seek food; previous to this time the egg-sac, which is attached to the 
lower side of each fish, furnishes all the food necessary. The egg-sac 
contains the yolk of the egg, and this supports the newly born fish in the 
same manner as little chicks are nourished for the first day or 
two by the food obtained from the yolk of the egg before they emierge 


SOMETHING ABOUT EELS 


107 


from the shell. In about a week the small fish are transferred from, the 
spawning-pond to a clean pond. 

Newly horn goldfish are dark-colored, having the color of carp. The 
golden tint begins to appear at various periods. In some fish it makes 
its appearance within a week, while in others it is not noticed until they 
are three or four weeks old. A silverfish is simply a goldfish with 
arrested color-development, and it may color later in life. Centuries 
ago the goldfish was blue; the Chinese are credited with having pro¬ 
duced the goldfish tints as we see them today. 

The fish are fed regularly during the summer season if natural food 
in the shape of insects, larvae, fine roots, etc., are not present in sufficient 
quantity. Goldfish do not eat in winter, and the color-development 
stops. They are dormant nearly all winter. 

Goldfish have many enemies, and in spite of constant vigilance on 
the part of the care-takers, there is always a great loss sustained after 
the tiny fish hatch. Among the chief enemies are snakes, frogs, craw¬ 
fish, rats, water-beetles, dragon-flies, cranes, kingfishers, blue heron, 
and ducks, all of which find the little creatures comparatively easy 
victims. A frog in a pond will destroy fish valued at a dollar every 
twenty-four hours. A common rat will swim under water as fast as a 
fish and pursue its prey to any retreat. The greatest destroyer of the 
fish, however, are the birds. The older goldfish also exterminate many 
of the younger ones; fish up to two inches in size are often devoured 
by the older fish. Elven the parents of the tiny fish will seize their own 
offspring with avidity. Crawfish are very destructive sometimes. At 
one goldfish hatchery as many as twenty-five barrels of crawfish are 
taken from the ponds in some seasons. All in all, it is estimated that 
about one fifth of the goldfish reach marketable age each year, the rest 
being destroyed in various ways. —Selected. 


SOMETHING ABOUT EELS 


T HERE ARE MANY species of fish-like creatures known as eels. 

Each species has its peculiarities, yet in general appearance they 
all resemble a snake. Their skin, though soft, is tough and thick, and 
exceedingly slimy, or slippery, caused by a secretion from the pores 

° f ^Thermost common species of eel is the fresh water eel, found abun- 



108 


THINGS IN NATURE 


dantly in the rivers and lakes of North America and Europe. They are 
eaten by those who are not prejudiced because of their snake-like appear¬ 
ance. The color of these eels is greenish or olive brown, lighter on the 
sides, and white beneath. Those in clear water are of a much lighter 
color than those in muddy water. In their skin are imbedded small and 
almost invisible scales. 

Eels are of a restless nature, and migrate from place to place. If 
in a river, they usually go up-stream in the spring and return in the 
autumn. They are very quick in movement, and travel long distances 

in a short time. But they travel 
only in the night; even moonlight 
retards their journey. They are 
persistent in overcoming obstacles 
in their travels, having been known 
to climb around a twenty-foot fall 
by making use of the branches of 
trees and by crawling on the 
ground. 

Eels are sensitive to cold, and 
in late fall many of them bury 
themselves together in the soft 
mud, twelve to sixteen inches deep, 
where they remain torpid all win¬ 
ter. Such places are called eel- 
grounds, and afford joy to the win¬ 
ter fishermen, who spear the eels. 
They are easily located because 
the warmth of the eels' bodies keeps the ground above them from freez¬ 
ing. In other seasons they are caught by hook, bob, or seine. 

Lila, the girl in the picture, was fishing in a small mill-pond when 
she caught the eel she is holding. It was three feet and six inches long, 
and ten inches around. This was a fine prize for a ten-year-old girl. 

Another species of the eel is called the electric eel, and is found in 
the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers in South America. This is one of the 
three different kinds of fish that give electric shocks to animals or per¬ 
sons with whom they come in contact. In the tail of this fish is located 
a nature-given weapon for defense and protection. To be struck by an 
electric eel's tail is similar to coming in contact with an electric battery. 



Lila’s prize 







OCTOBER'S BRIGHT BLUE! WEATHER 


109 


The eel uses it in procuring fish for food, but he kills far more than he 
eats. The first stroke of his tail is violent and gives a shock sufficient 
to make a man ill for several days. It has been known to kill a horse. 

In some places the natives value this eel for food and for medicinal 
uses; but to catch them they must be very careful. Sometimes they 
drive horses into the water. The eels first attack these, hut soon become 
weakened by repetition 6f the shock-giving strokes that they administer, 
and must rest. Then the natives take advantage of this change to use 
the long spears they have brought, and they kill many of the exhausted 
eels. 

In this article I have mentioned only two species of eels, hut there 
are more than two hundred others. 


OCTOBER’S BRIGHT BLUE WEATHER 

O suns and skies and clouds of June 
And flowers of June together. 

Ye can not rival for one hour 
October’s bright blue weather— 

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste, 
Belated, thriftless vagrant, 

And golden-rod is dying fast, 

And lanes with grapes are fragrant; 

When gentians roll their fringes tight 
To save them from the morning, 

And chestnuts fall from satin burrs. 

Without a sound of warning; 

When on the ground red apples lie 
In piles like jewels shining, 

And redder still, on old stone walls. 

Are leaves of woodbine twining; 

When all the lovely wayside things 
Their white-winged seeds are sowing, 

And in the fields, still green and fair, 

Late aftermaths are growing; 

When springs run low and on the brooks, 

In idle golden freighting, 



110 


THINGS IN NATURE 


Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush 
Of woods for winter waiting. 

O suns and skies and flowers of June, 
Count all your boasts together, 

Love loveth best of all the year 
October’s bright blue weather. 

—Helen Hunt Jaclcson. 


SOME FEATHERLESS FLYERS 

N OT OUR FEATHERED neighbors only are able to sail through 
the atmosphere; but some animals, and even some fishes, enjoy the 

same privilege. We 
have all seen the bat 
flying swiftly around 
the house and over 
the garden as the twi¬ 
light fades into dark¬ 
ness. Doubtless at 
first we thought it 
was a bird, but later 
we learned that it was 
a little animal having 
beautiful thin webs 
of tissue growing out 
from its body, which 
served it as wings. 

If we were to vis¬ 
it the woodland, we 
might come across a 
flying-squirrel or per¬ 
il a p s a flying-toad. 
These animals can 
not be said to really 
a flying-fish fty as birds fly, since 

they have nothing that serves as wings. The flying-squirrel, after mak¬ 
ing a leap into the air, is, by a fold of skin on each side extending from 







SOME FEATHERLESS FLYERS 


111 


the fore leg to the hind leg, enabled to sail sixty feet in a downward 
direction. 

But we should perhaps think it the most peculiar sight of all if, 
upon starting across the Atlantic Ocean, we should see a large school 
of fish spring up out of the water in front of our ship and move off 
through the air in every direction. The most of them probably wtould 
not rise higher than a few feet above the water, though some might go 
above the masts of the ship. They might sail swiftly in a straight line 
for a distance of perhaps more than an eighth of a mile before they 
would settle down into the water again. At times, as though they had 
grown tired in their flight, they would touch the crest of a wave, then 
go on again. While in flight they would resemble large dragon-flies. 

There has been some dispute as to whether these fish really fly, that 
is, whether they use their fins as wings or merely as parachutes to hold 
themselves up in the air. When in the water, they move very rapidly, 
although the only motive power used is the action of the tail. Some 
naturalists who have carefully observed them claim that their flying is 
accomplished in the following manner: As they rise out of the water 
either with a view of escaping an enemy or merely from the desire to 
fly, the movements of the tail are continued until the body is out of the 
water. Then the fins spread out and act as parachutes, holding the body 
of the fish up in the air. When the fish begins to fall, as soon as it touches 
the water, though it be but the crest of a wave, the tail movement is 
immediately begun and thus the fish is enabled to resume its flight. 

Others who have watched this fish a great deal declare that it really 
flies. They claim that though the fins do not flutter as birds ’ wings do, 
they vibrate as the wings of insects and thus aid in making the flight. 
However this may be, these fish furnish many interesting and beautiful 
sights which are much enjoyed by sailors and tourists, and they portray 
another means of self-protection that the Creator has given the sea- 
creatures. 




























































































































































































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